Airborne radio echo sounding on the Shirase Glacier and its drainage basin, East Antarctica

Abstract

Airborne radio echo sounding carried out on the Shirase Glacier and its drainage basin in January 1980 is described. The new sounder (NIPR-A) was operated at 179 MHz on board a Pilatus Porter PC-6. Analysis of the continuous records of the sounding gave the bedrock topography along the flow line as well as in several cross sections of the downstream part of the glacier. The intense echo caused by the crevasses in the downstream masked that from the bed and so the depth and profile of the bedrock were obscured. In the lower part near point B (70°20′S, 39°20′E), the bedrock was partly below sea level. The bedrock topography 50km upstream from B is complicated compared with that of the upper reaches of the Shirase Glacier drainage basin. The thickness of ice on the former C route taken by the traverse party in 1974 (C94,98) coincided well with the present results.