Radar-icy regolith interactions at the McGill Arctic Research Station (MARS) at Axel Heiberg Island

请求提供资金，以支持与我提交的NSERC发现赠款提案有关的实地项目，该提案题为“行星表面的雷达遥感和地质分析”。“该提案中概述的项目之一是基于实地的探地雷达（GPR）调查，旨在了解雷达信号与极地沙漠地形中冰冷风化层之间的相互作用。 这项工作将在麦吉尔北极研究站（MARS）进行，该研究站位于努纳武特（79.4 ° N，90.8 ° W）的中阿克塞尔海伯格岛的远征峡湾内陆8公里处。 这项工作的目的是量化雷达信号与各种富含冰的地质材料的相互作用，这些材料可以作为行星材料的类似物。 虽然许多研究已经使用雷达作为遥感工具来搜索和表征地球和其他行星上的浅层地下冰，但还需要对极化雷达上各种形式的地面冰的相位特征进行系统的调查。 这对于研究火星表面和近表面物质特别重要，因为在那里，由于温度和压力很低，很可能有大量的水以地冰的形式占据浅层地下。穿透雷达与其他地球物理技术相结合，已被证明在确定地球浅层地下物质的特征方面极为有效，国际火星社区成员对开发火星着陆探地雷达系统很感兴趣。在行星社区之外，我的研究结果对于涉及北方社区发展的实际应用也很重要，在那里，了解地面冰的性质是减轻热岩溶[40]和类似现象影响的关键。 最后，我将最终寻求利用我的研究结果来开发一种方法，用于检测大面积地面冰的分布和性质的长期变化;如果这是成功的，它将提供一种新的方法来监测全球气候变化对北方地区的影响。

Funds are requested to support the field project associated with my submitted NSERC Discovery Grant proposal entitled, "Radar remote sensing and geological analysis of planetary surfaces." One of the projects outlined in that proposal is a field-based ground-penetrating radar (GPR) investigation, aimed at understanding the interactions between radar signals and icy regolith in polar desert terrains. This work will be conducted at the McGill Arctic Research Station (MARS), located 8 km inland at Expedition Fiord, on Central Axel Heiberg Island in Nunavut (79.4° N, 90.8° W). The objective of this work is to quantify the interactions of radar signals with various ice-rich geological materials that can serve as analogues to planetary materials. Though many studies have used radar as a remote sensing tool to search for and characterize shallow subsurface ice on Earth and other planets, a systematic investigation of the phase signatures of ground ice in various forms on polarimetric radar is needed. This is particularly important for studies of Martian surface and near-surface materials, where, because of the low temperatures and pressures, it is likely that a significant volume of water occupies the shallow subsurface in the form of ground ice. Penetrating radar, combined with other geophysical techniques, has been shown to be extremely effective at characterizing shallow subsurface materials on Earth, and there is much interest among members of the international Mars community in developing a landed GPR system for Mars. Beyond the planetary community, my results will also be important for practical applications involving development in northern communities, where an understanding of the nature of ground ice is key to mitigating the effects of thermokarst [40] and similar phenomena. Finally, I will ultimately seek to use my results to develop a method for detecting long-term changes in the distribution and nature of ground ice over large areas; if this is successful, it would provide a new way to monitor the effects of global climate change in northern regions.