Interpretation of Radio Echoes from Storglaciären, Northern Sweden

Abstract

AbstractStorglaciären (lat. 67.5°N., long. 17.5°E.) is a sub-polar glacier which has been the object of detailed study for many years. It responds in a sensitive way to annual and long-term changes in climate but it does not surge. Conditions at the bed and the distribution of englacial water are of considerable interest. In this paper we discuss an attempt to learn something about these matters by radio-echo soundings at metric and decametric wavelengths. We analyse radio-echo records mainly using a scalar-wave theory of the diffraction of pulses. The pulse shapes of echoes are useful because they help us to recognize the types of target and processes responsible for the echoes. We then use simple statistical measurements of radio echoes to provide estimates of certain average properties of the targets. We estimate, for example, the roughness of the glacier bed and the distribution and orientations of scatterers within the ice.