Radar reflections reveal a wet bed beneath stagnant Ice Stream C and a frozen bed beneath ridge BC, West Antarctica

Abstract

AbstractDigital airborne radar data were collected during the 1987-88 Antarctic field season in nine gridded blocks covering the downstream portions of Ice Stream B (6km spacing) and Ice Stream C (11 km spacing), together with a portion of ridge BC between them. An automated processing procedure was used for picking onset times of the reflected radar pulses, converting travel times to distances, interpolating missing data, converting pressure transducer readings, correcting navigational drift, performing crossover analysis, and zeroing rémanent crossover errors. Interpolation between flight-lines was carried out using the minimum curvature method.Maps of ice thickness (estimated accuracy 20 m) and basal-reflection strength (estimated accuracy 1 dB) were produced. The ice-thickness map confirms the characteristics of previous reconnaissance maps and reveals no new features. The reflection-strength map shows pronounced contrasts between the ice streams and ridge BC and between the two ice streams themselves. We interpret the reflection strengths to mean that the bed of Ice Stream C, as well as that of Ice Stream B, is unfrozen, that the bed of ridge BC is frozen and that the boundary between the frozen bed of ridge BC and the unfrozen bed of Ice Stream C lies precisely below the former shear margin of the ice stream.