Dustin Schroeder
Associate Professor of Geophysics, of Electrical Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Bio
Dustin Schroeder is an Associate Professor of Geophysics and of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, where he is also affiliated with Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, and Institute for Human-Centered AI. His research primarily focuses on observing and understanding the role of continental ice sheets and their contribution to the rate of sea level rise. A growing secondary focus of his work is the subsurface exploration of icy worlds. He also works on the development, use, and analysis of geophysical radar systems optimized to observe hypothesis-specific phenomena. His research group aspires to approach problems from both an earth system science and radar system engineering perspective.
Schroeder serves on the Science Team for the REASON radar instrument on NASA’s Europa Clipper mission and previously co-chaired the mission’s Interior Working Group. At Stanford, he serves as Associate Chair of Geophysics, Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education in Electrical Engineering, and Faculty Director for COLLEGE 102: Citizenship in the 21st Century, part of Stanford’s Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE) first-year core curriculum. He also serves as Chair of the Stanford Faculty Senate. Beyond the university, he serves as Vice President of the International Glaciological Society and has served for more than two decades with the National Science Olympiad, where he chairs the national Earth and Space Sciences committee.
Schroeder is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, a Senior Member of IEEE, and recipient of the AGU James B. Macelwane Medal and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award. His contributions to education have been recognized through teaching awards in Stanford’s School of Engineering and Doerr School of Sustainability, his selection as a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and national recognition for leadership in undergraduate and K–12 science education.
Prior to joining Stanford, Schroeder was a Radar Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. He received his PhD in Geophysics from the University of Texas at Austin and holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BA in Physics from Bucknell University. Between his undergraduate and graduate studies, he worked as a Platform Hardware Engineer at Freescale Semiconductor.
Academic Appointments
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Associate Professor, Geophysics
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Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering
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Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
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Faculty Affiliate, Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)
Administrative Appointments
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Chair, Stanford Faculty Senate (2026 - Present)
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Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education, Department of Electrical Engineering (2024 - Present)
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Steering Committee Member, Stanford Faculty Senate (2024 - Present)
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Executive Committee, Department of Electrical Engineering (2024 - Present)
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Associate Chair, Department of Geophysics (2023 - Present)
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Faculty Director, COLLEGE 102: Citizenship in the 21st Century (2022 - Present)
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Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Geophysics (2017 - Present)
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Vice Chair, Stanford Faculty Senate (2025 - 2026)
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Steering Committee Member, Stanford Faculty Senate (2020 - 2022)
Honors & Awards
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National Fellow on the Future of Liberal Education, Teagle Foundation (2026)
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Fellow, American Geophysical Union (2024)
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James B. Macelwane Medal, American Geophysical Union (2024)
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Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, Stanford University (2023)
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Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education, Stanford Electrical Engineering (2023)
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Distinguished Service Award, National Science Olympiad (2022)
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Symposium Paper Prize Award, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (2021)
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Excellence in Teaching Award, Stanford School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences (2020)
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Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (2019)
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CAREER Award, National Science Foundation (2018)
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Frederick E. Terman Fellow, Stanford Unverisity (2016)
Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
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Vice President, International Glaciological Society (2025 - Present)
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Member, Board of Directors, California Council on Science and Technology (2024 - Present)
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Scientific Committee Member, IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) (2022 - Present)
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Session Chair, IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) (2022 - Present)
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Scientific Editor, Journal of Glaciology (2019 - Present)
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Council Member, International Glaciological Society (2019 - Present)
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Science Team Member, REASON Investigation, NASA's Europa Clipper Mission (2015 - Present)
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Chair, National Earth & Space Sciences Committee, National Science Olympiad (2014 - Present)
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Member, National Earth & Space Sciences Committee, National Science Olympiad (2003 - Present)
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Chair, AGU Cryosphere Sciences Award Committee (2025 - 2026)
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Member, AGU Cryosphere Section Executive Committee (2022 - 2026)
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Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (2020 - 2026)
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Co-Chair, Instruments & Future Technologies Technical Committee (IFT-TC), IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (2021 - 2025)
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Co-Chair, Interiors Working Group, NASA's Europa Clipper Mission (2020 - 2023)
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Co-Lead, Active Microwave – Radar and SAR Working Group, IFT-TC — IEEE GRSS (2020 - 2023)
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Scientific Committee Member, IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) (2019 - 2020)
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Session Chair, IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) (2018 - 2020)
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Associate Chief Editor, Annals of Glaciology (2019 - 2019)
All Publications
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Next-generation radar bed measurements should be optimized for assimilation or repeat-pass profiling.
Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
2026; 384 (2319)
Abstract
Ice-penetrating radar observation of bed echoes is a core geophysical technique in glaciology. In early and ongoing exploration and mapping surveys, areas with little or no data were often prioritized, leading to few repeated radar sounding profiles. In parallel, advances in radar sounding instruments, platforms and analysis approaches have dramatically opened possibilities for future survey design. Here, we consider the opportunities these advances present for next-generation bed measurements, including both assimilation-optimized mapping and repeat sounding. Based on this analysis, we argue that repeat-pass profiles of bed echo power and englacial layer echo phase should be key priorities for future observations. To that end, we evaluate the detectability of subglacial water bodies, including ocean intrusion in the grounding zone as a target for repeat-pass surveys. We also discuss the distinct implications of our suggested approaches for instrument, platform and survey choices to combine mapping and repeat-pass surveys across the time scales of ice-sheet change. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Next generation ice-sheet bed measurements'.
View details for DOI 10.1098/rsta.2024.0548
View details for PubMedID 42021654
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Passive Microwave Radiometry and Active Radar Sounding as Complementary Tools for Geophysical Investigations of Icy Ocean Worlds
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
2026; 131 (3)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2025JE009301
View details for Web of Science ID 001705469000001
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Anisotropic Melt Inclusions as a Confounding Signal for Ice-Penetrating Radar Observations
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2026; 53 (5)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2025GL120182
View details for Web of Science ID 001703813300001
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Resolving radiostratigraphy with squinted synthetic aperture radar focusing
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
2026; 72
View details for DOI 10.1017/jog.2025.10122
View details for Web of Science ID 001663403100001
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Mini-RF X/C-Band Bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar: Architecture, Polarimetric Observations, and Implications for Future Systems
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2026; 64
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2026.3652796
View details for Web of Science ID 001708259200023
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Polarimetric multi-offset radio-echo sounding with a radio frequency-over-fiber ApRES system
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
2025; 72
View details for DOI 10.1017/jog.2025.10114
View details for Web of Science ID 001664316800001
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Radar Polarimetry in Glaciology: Theory, Measurement Techniques, and Scientific Applications for Investigating the Anisotropy of Ice Masses
REVIEWS OF GEOPHYSICS
2025; 63 (4)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2024RG000842
View details for Web of Science ID 001606120400001
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Review article: AntArchitecture - building an age-depth model from Antarctica's radiostratigraphy to explore ice-sheet evolution
CRYOSPHERE
2025; 19 (10): 4611-4655
View details for DOI 10.5194/tc-19-4611-2025
View details for Web of Science ID 001595922300001
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Long-distance ranging and velocity measurements by REASON on Europa Clipper
ICARUS
2025; 436
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.icarus.2025.116585
View details for Web of Science ID 001472844200001
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Measurement of Englacial Velocity Fields With Interferometric Radio Echo Sounders
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE
2025; 130 (6)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2025JF008286
View details for Web of Science ID 001497619600001
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Bedmap3 updated ice bed, surface and thickness gridded datasets for Antarctica.
Scientific data
2025; 12 (1): 414
Abstract
We present Bedmap3, the latest suite of gridded products describing surface elevation, ice-thickness and the seafloor and subglacial bed elevation of the Antarctic south of 60 °S. Bedmap3 incorporates and adds to all post-1950s datasets previously used for Bedmap2, including 84 new aero-geophysical surveys by 15 data providers, an additional 52 million data points and 1.9 million line-kilometres of measurement. These efforts have filled notable gaps including in major mountain ranges and the deep interior of East Antarctica, along West Antarctic coastlines and on the Antarctic Peninsula. Our new Bedmap3/RINGS grounding line similarly consolidates multiple recent mappings into a single, spatially coherent feature. Combined with updated maps of surface topography, ice shelf thickness, rock outcrops and bathymetry, Bedmap3 reveals in much greater detail the subglacial landscape and distribution of Antarctica's ice, providing new opportunities to interpret continental-scale landscape evolution and to model the past and future evolution of the Antarctic ice sheets.
View details for DOI 10.1038/s41597-025-04672-y
View details for PubMedID 40064916
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC11893747
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Radar Characterization of Salt Layers in Europa's Ice Shell as a Window Into Critical Ice-Ocean Exchange Processes
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2025; 52 (1)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2024GL109144
View details for Web of Science ID 001383566200001
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A Flexible, Open-Source, Towed, Coherent, Software-Defined Ice-Penetrating Radar System
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2025; 63
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2025.3573945
View details for Web of Science ID 001508119500021
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Constraining the Thickness of the Conductive Portion of Europa's Ice Shell Using Sparse Radar Echoes
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2024; 51 (20)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2024GL110635
View details for Web of Science ID 001333605400001
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A newly digitized ice-penetrating radar data set acquired over the Greenland ice sheet in 1971-1979
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA
2024; 16 (7): 3333-3344
View details for DOI 10.5194/essd-16-3333-2024
View details for Web of Science ID 001273559800001
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Entrained Water in Basal Ice Suppresses Radar Bed-Echo Power at Active Subglacial Lakes
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2024; 51 (13)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2024GL109248
View details for Web of Science ID 001254260200001
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Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-Surface (REASON).
Space science reviews
2024; 220 (5): 51
Abstract
The Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) is a dual-frequency ice-penetrating radar (9 and 60 MHz) onboard the Europa Clipper mission. REASON is designed to probe Europa from exosphere to subsurface ocean, contributing the third dimension to observations of this enigmatic world. The hypotheses REASON will test are that (1) the ice shell of Europa hosts liquid water, (2) the ice shell overlies an ocean and is subject to tidal flexing, and (3) the exosphere, near-surface, ice shell, and ocean participate in material exchange essential to the habitability of this moon. REASON will investigate processes governing this material exchange by characterizing the distribution of putative non-ice material (e.g., brines, salts) in the subsurface, searching for an ice-ocean interface, characterizing the ice shell's global structure, and constraining the amplitude of Europa's radial tidal deformations. REASON will accomplish these science objectives using a combination of radar measurement techniques including altimetry, reflectometry, sounding, interferometry, plasma characterization, and ranging. Building on a rich heritage from Earth, the moon, and Mars, REASON will be the first ice-penetrating radar to explore the outer solar system. Because these radars are untested for the icy worlds in the outer solar system, a novel approach to measurement quality assessment was developed to represent uncertainties in key properties of Europa that affect REASON performance and ensure robustness across a range of plausible parameters suggested for the icy moon. REASON will shed light on a never-before-seen dimension of Europa and - in concert with other instruments on Europa Clipper - help to investigate whether Europa is a habitable world.
View details for DOI 10.1007/s11214-024-01072-3
View details for PubMedID 38948073
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC11211191
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Science Overview of the Europa Clipper Mission
SPACE SCIENCE REVIEWS
2024; 220 (4)
View details for DOI 10.1007/s11214-024-01070-5
View details for Web of Science ID 001230261600002
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Evidence for and Against Temperate Ice in Antarctic Shear Margins From Radar-Depth Sounding Data
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2024; 51 (9)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2023GL106893
View details for Web of Science ID 001264042300001
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Feasibility of Passive Sounding of Uranian Moons Using Uranian Kilometric Radiation
EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE
2024; 11 (2)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2023EA003013
View details for Web of Science ID 001154799300001
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Heterogeneous Basal Thermal Conditions Underpinning the Adélie-George V Coast, East Antarctica
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2024; 51 (2)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2023GL105450
View details for Web of Science ID 001144711100001
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Open Radar Code Architecture (ORCA): A Platform for Software-Defined Coherent Chirped Radar Systems
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2024; 62
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2024.3446368
View details for Web of Science ID 001308252000022
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Active and Passive Microwave Remote Sensing of Priestley Glacier, Antarctica
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2024; 62
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2024.3462268
View details for Web of Science ID 001336387700015
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Spatial Coherence Constraints on Passive Radar Sounding With Radio-Astronomical Sources
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2024; 62
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2024.3456049
View details for Web of Science ID 001317811700031
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Antarctic Sedimentary Basins and Their Influence on Ice-Sheet Dynamics
REVIEWS OF GEOPHYSICS
2023; 61 (3)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2021RG000767
View details for Web of Science ID 001058749300001
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Exploring the Interior of Europa with the Europa Clipper.
Space science reviews
2023; 219 (6): 46
Abstract
The Galileo mission to Jupiter revealed that Europa is an ocean world. The Galileo magnetometer experiment in particular provided strong evidence for a salty subsurface ocean beneath the ice shell, likely in contact with the rocky core. Within the ice shell and ocean, a number of tectonic and geodynamic processes may operate today or have operated at some point in the past, including solid ice convection, diapirism, subsumption, and interstitial lake formation. The science objectives of the Europa Clipper mission include the characterization of Europa's interior; confirmation of the presence of a subsurface ocean; identification of constraints on the depth to this ocean, and on its salinity and thickness; and determination of processes of material exchange between the surface, ice shell, and ocean. Three broad categories of investigation are planned to interrogate different aspects of the subsurface structure and properties of the ice shell and ocean: magnetic induction, subsurface radar sounding, and tidal deformation. These investigations are supplemented by several auxiliary measurements. Alone, each of these investigations will reveal unique information. Together, the synergy between these investigations will expose the secrets of the Europan interior in unprecedented detail, an essential step in evaluating the habitability of this ocean world.
View details for DOI 10.1007/s11214-023-00990-y
View details for PubMedID 37636325
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10457249
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Antarctic Bedmap data: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) sharing of 60 years of ice bed, surface, and thickness data
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA
2023; 15 (7): 2695-2710
View details for DOI 10.5194/essd-15-2695-2023
View details for Web of Science ID 001036977900001
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The Phase Response of a Rough Rectangular Facet for Radar Sounder Simulations of Both Coherent and Incoherent Scattering
RADIO SCIENCE
2023; 58 (6)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2022RS007594
View details for Web of Science ID 001004459400001
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Paths forward in radioglaciology
ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY
2023
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2023.3
View details for Web of Science ID 000949605900001
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Radar Attenuation in Enceladus' Ice Shell: Obstacles and Opportunities for Constraining Shell Thickness, Chemistry, and Thermal Structure
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
2023; 128 (2)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2022JE007626
View details for Web of Science ID 000936137400001
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Joint Active and Passive Microwave Thermometry of Ice Sheets
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2023; 61
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2023.3255219
View details for Web of Science ID 000969953000014
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Bistatic Radar Tomography of Shear Margins: Simulated Temperature and Basal Material Inversions
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2023; 61
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2022.3213047
View details for Web of Science ID 000917934300005
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Shallow Fracture Buffers High Elevation Runoff in Northwest Greenland
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2022; 49 (23)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2022GL101151
View details for Web of Science ID 000925126000001
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Ice mass loss sensitivity to the Antarctic ice sheet basal thermal state.
Nature communications
2022; 13 (1): 4957
Abstract
Sea-level rise projections rely on accurate predictions of ice mass loss from Antarctica. Climate change promotes greater mass loss by destabilizing ice shelves and accelerating the discharge of upstream grounded ice. Mass loss is further exacerbated by mechanisms such as the Marine Ice Sheet Instability and the Marine Ice Cliff Instability. However, the effect of basal thermal state changes of grounded ice remains largely unexplored. Here, we use numerical ice sheet modeling to investigate how warmer basal temperatures could affect the Antarctic ice sheet mass balance. We find increased mass loss in response to idealized basal thawing experiments run over 100 years. Most notably, frozen-bed patches could be tenuously sustaining the current ice configuration in parts of George V, Adelie, Enderby, and Kemp Land regions of East Antarctica. With less than 5 degrees of basal warming, these frozen patches may begin to thaw, producing new loci of mass loss.
View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-32632-2
View details for PubMedID 36104329
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Persistent, extensive channelized drainage modeled beneath Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica
CRYOSPHERE
2022; 16 (9): 3575-3599
View details for DOI 10.5194/tc-16-3575-2022
View details for Web of Science ID 000848774400001
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Radar Characterization of Ice Crystal Orientation Fabric and Anisotropic Viscosity Within an Antarctic Ice Stream
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE
2022; 127 (6)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2022JF006673
View details for Web of Science ID 000814420800001
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Double ridge formation over shallow water sills on Jupiter's moon Europa.
Nature communications
2022; 13 (1): 2007
Abstract
Jupiter's moon Europa is a prime candidate for extraterrestrial habitability in our solar system. The surface landforms of its ice shell express the subsurface structure, dynamics, and exchange governing this potential. Double ridges are the most common surface feature on Europa and occur across every sector of the moon, but their formation is poorly understood, with current hypotheses providing competing and incomplete mechanisms for the development of their distinct morphology. Here we present the discovery and analysis of a double ridge in Northwest Greenland with the same gravity-scaled geometry as those found on Europa. Using surface elevation and radar sounding data, we show that this double ridge was formed by successive refreezing, pressurization, and fracture of a shallow water sill within the ice sheet. If the same process is responsible for Europa's double ridges, our results suggest that shallow liquid water is spatially and temporally ubiquitous across Europa's ice shell.
View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-29458-3
View details for PubMedID 35440535
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An empirical algorithm to map perennial firn aquifers and ice slabs within the Greenland Ice Sheet using satellite L-band microwave radiometry
CRYOSPHERE
2022; 16 (1): 103-125
View details for DOI 10.5194/tc-16-103-2022
View details for Web of Science ID 000746452400001
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Post-Processing Synchronized Bistatic Radar for Long Offset Glacier Sounding
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2022; 60
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2022.3147172
View details for Web of Science ID 000770659900007
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Altimetry Measurements From Planetary Radar Sounders and Application to SHARAD on Mars
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2022; 60
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2021.3134638
View details for Web of Science ID 000766762800006
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Radiometric analysis of digitized Z-scope records in archival radar sounding film
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
2021
View details for DOI 10.1017/jog.2021.130
View details for Web of Science ID 000736129300001
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Passive Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging Using Radio-Astronomical Sources
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2021; 59 (11): 9144-9159
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2021.3050429
View details for Web of Science ID 000711850900021
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A detailed radiostratigraphic data set for the central East Antarctic Plateau spanning from the Holocene to the mid-Pleistocene
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA
2021; 13 (10): 4759-4777
View details for DOI 10.5194/essd-13-4759-2021
View details for Web of Science ID 000709454600001
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Alternatives to Liquid Water Beneath the South Polar Ice Cap of Mars
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2021; 48 (19)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2021GL095912
View details for Web of Science ID 000706306000078
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Multisystem Synthesis of Radar Sounding Observations of the Amundsen Sea Sector From the 2004-2005 Field Season.
Journal of geophysical research. Earth surface
2021; 126 (10): e2021JF006296
Abstract
The Amundsen Sea Embayment of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet contains Thwaites and Pine Island Glaciers, two of the most rapidly changing glaciers in Antarctica. To date, Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers have only been observed by independent airborne radar sounding surveys, but a combined cross-basin analysis that investigates the basal conditions across the Pine Island-Thwaites Glaciers boundary has not been performed. Here, we combine two radar surveys and correct for their differences in system parameters to produce unified englacial attenuation and basal relative reflectivity maps spanning both Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers. Relative reflectivities range from -24.8 to +37.4 dB with the highest values beneath fast-flowing ice at the ice sheet margin. By comparing our reflectivity results with previously derived radar specularity and trailing bed echoes at Thwaites Glacier, we find a highly diverse subglacial landscape and hydrologic conditions that evolve along-flow. Together, these findings highlight the potential for joint airborne radar analysis with ground-based seismic and geomorphological observations to understand variations in the bed properties and cross-catchment interactions of ice streams and outlet glaciers.
View details for DOI 10.1029/2021JF006296
View details for PubMedID 35865452
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC9286636
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Permanent Scatterers in Repeat-Pass Airborne VHF Radar Sounder for Layer-Velocity Estimation
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS
2021; 18 (10): 1766-1770
View details for DOI 10.1109/LGRS.2020.3007514
View details for Web of Science ID 000701254500022
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Multisystem Synthesis of Radar Sounding Observations of the Amundsen Sea Sector From the 2004-2005 Field Season
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE
2021; 126 (10)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2021JF006296
View details for Web of Science ID 000711971800001
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Conditioning Jovian Burst Signals for Passive Sounding Applications
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2021
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2021.3109106
View details for Web of Science ID 000732756200001
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Five decades of radioglaciology (vol 61, pg 1, 2020)
ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY
2021; 62 (85-86): 390
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2021.14
View details for Web of Science ID 000756851600019
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Rapid and accurate polarimetric radar measurements of ice crystal fabric orientation at the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide ice core site
CRYOSPHERE
2021; 15 (8): 4117-4133
View details for DOI 10.5194/tc-15-4117-2021
View details for Web of Science ID 000692000000001
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A Radiometrically Precise Multi-Frequency Ice-Penetrating Radar Architecture
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2021
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2021.3099801
View details for Web of Science ID 000732757000001
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Glaciological Monitoring Using the Sun as a Radio Source for Echo Detection
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2021; 48 (14)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2021GL092450
View details for Web of Science ID 000711496700012
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Radar-Sounding Characterization of the Subglacial Groundwater Table Beneath Hiawatha Glacier, Greenland
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2021; 48 (10)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2020GL091432
View details for Web of Science ID 000658600300030
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Radar-Sounding Characterization of the Subglacial Groundwater Table Beneath Hiawatha Glacier, Greenland.
Geophysical research letters
2021; 48 (10): e2020GL091432
Abstract
Radar-sounding surveys associated with the discovery of a large impact crater beneath Hiawatha Glacier, Greenland, revealed bright, flat subglacial reflections hypothesized to originate from a subglacial groundwater table. We test this hypothesis using radiometric and hydrologic analysis of those radar data. The dielectric loss between the reflection from the top of the basal layer and subglacial reflection and their reflectivity difference represent dual constraints upon the complex permittivity of the basal material. Either ice-cemented debris or fractured, well-drained bedrock explain the basal layer's radiometric properties. The subglacial reflector's geometry is parallel to isopotential hydraulic head contours, located 7.5-15.3 m below the interface, and 11 ± 7 dB brighter than the ice-basal layer reflection. We conclude that this subglacial reflection is a groundwater table and that its detection was enabled by the wide bandwidth of the radar system and unusual geologic setting, suggesting a path for future direct radar detection of subglacial groundwater elsewhere.
View details for DOI 10.1029/2020GL091432
View details for PubMedID 34219826
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8243977
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Inferring Ice Fabric From Birefringence Loss in Airborne Radargrams: Application to the Eastern Shear Margin of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE
2021; 126 (5)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2020JF006023
View details for Web of Science ID 000655231000002
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Analysis of Temporal and Structural Characteristics of Jovian Radio Emissions for Passive Radar Sounding of Jupiters Icy Moons
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2021; 59 (5): 3857-3874
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2020.3023249
View details for Web of Science ID 000642096400018
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Extreme melt season ice layers reduce firn permeability across Greenland.
Nature communications
2021; 12 (1): 2336
Abstract
Surface meltwater runoff dominates present-day mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet. In Greenland's interior, porous firn can limit runoff by retaining meltwater unless perched low-permeability horizons, such as ice slabs, develop and restrict percolation. Recent observations suggest that such horizons might develop rapidly during extreme melt seasons. Here we present radar sounding evidence that an extensive near surface melt layer formed following the extreme melt season in 2012. This layer was still present in 2017 in regions up to 700m higher in elevation and 160km further inland than known ice slabs. We find that melt layer formation is driven by local, short-timescale thermal and hydrologic processes in addition to mean climate state. These melt layers reduce vertical percolation pathways, and, under appropriate firn temperature and surface melt conditions, encourage further ice aggregation at their horizon. Therefore, the frequency of extreme melt seasons relative to the rate at which pore space and cold content regenerates above the most recent melt layer may be a key determinant of the firn's multi-year response to surface melt.
View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-22656-5
View details for PubMedID 33879796
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Stochastic modeling of subglacial topography exposes uncertainty in water routing at Jakobshavn Glacier
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
2021; 67 (261): 75–83
View details for DOI 10.1017/jog.2020.84
View details for Web of Science ID 000608835500007
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Challenges on Mercury's Interior Structure Posed by the New Measurements of its Obliquity and Tides
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2021; 48 (3)
View details for DOI 10.1029/2020GL089895
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Interpreting englacial layer deformation in the presence of complex ice flow history with synthetic radargrams
ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY
2020; 61 (81): 206–13
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2019.41
View details for Web of Science ID 000565350800022
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Automated detection and characterization of Antarctic basal units using radar sounding data: demonstration in Institute Ice Stream, West Antarctica
ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY
2020; 61 (81): 242–48
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2020.27
View details for Web of Science ID 000565350800026
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Five decades of radioglaciology
ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY
2020; 61 (81): 1–13
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2020.11
View details for Web of Science ID 000565350800001
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A comparison of automated approaches to extracting englacial-layer geometry from radar data across ice sheets
ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY
2020; 61 (81): 234–41
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2020.42
View details for Web of Science ID 000565350800025
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Reflections on the anomalous ANITA events: the Antarctic subsurface as a possible explanation
ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY
2020; 61 (81): 92–98
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2020.19
View details for Web of Science ID 000565350800010
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Geospatial simulations of airborne ice-penetrating radar surveying reveal elevation under-measurement bias for ice-sheet bed topography
ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY
2020; 61 (81): 46–57
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2020.35
View details for Web of Science ID 000565350800005
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Estimation of ice fabric within Whillans Ice Stream using polarimetric phase-sensitive radar sounding
ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY
2020; 61 (81): 74–83
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2020.6
View details for Web of Science ID 000565350800008
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Assessing the detectability of Europa’s eutectic zone using radar sounding
Icarus
2020; 339 (0019-1035)
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.icarus.2019.113578
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Firn Clutter Constraints on the Design and Performance of Orbital Radar Ice Sounders
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
2020: 1-18
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2020.2976666
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Passive radio sounding to correct for Europa's ionospheric distortion of VHF signals
Planetary and Space Science
2020
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.pss.2020.104925
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Layer optimized SAR processing and slope estimation in radar sounder data
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
2019; 65 (254): 983–88
View details for DOI 10.1017/jog.2019.72
View details for Web of Science ID 000510631500009
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A subglacial hydrologic drainage hypothesis for silt sorting and deposition during retreat in Pine Island Bay
ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY
2019; 60 (80): 14–20
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2019.44
View details for Web of Science ID 000521622400003
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Subglacial roughness of the Greenland Ice Sheet: relationship with contemporary ice velocity and geology
CRYOSPHERE
2019; 13 (11): 3093–3115
View details for DOI 10.5194/tc-13-3093-2019
View details for Web of Science ID 000499720500001
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A Polarimetric Coherence Method to Determine Ice Crystal Orientation Fabric From Radar Sounding: Application to the NEEM Ice Core Region
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2019; 57 (11): 8641–57
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2019.2921980
View details for Web of Science ID 000496155200023
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Sustained Antarctic Research: A 21st Century Imperative
ONE EARTH
2019; 1 (1): 95-113
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.oneear.2019.08.014
View details for Web of Science ID 000644704800021
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Radar-Detected Englacial Debris in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2019
View details for DOI 10.1029/2019GL084012
View details for Web of Science ID 000485396900001
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Seismology with Dark Data: Image-Based Processing of Analog Records Using Machine Learning for the Rangely Earthquake Control Experiment
SEISMOLOGICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2019; 90 (2): 553–62
View details for DOI 10.1785/0220180298
View details for Web of Science ID 000460125100013
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Doppler-based discrimination of radar sounder target scattering properties: A case study of subsurface water geometry in Europa's ice shell
Icarus
2019
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.icarus.2019.02.037
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Multidecadal observations of the Antarctic ice sheet from restored analog radar records.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
2019
Abstract
Airborne radar sounding can measure conditions within and beneath polar ice sheets. In Antarctica, most digital radar-sounding data have been collected in the last 2 decades, limiting our ability to understand processes that govern longer-term ice-sheet behavior. Here, we demonstrate how analog radar data collected over 40 y ago in Antarctica can be combined with modern records to quantify multidecadal changes. Specifically, we digitize over 400,000 line kilometers of exploratory Antarctic radar data originally recorded on 35-mm optical film between 1971 and 1979. We leverage the increased geometric and radiometric resolution of our digitization process to show how these data can be used to identify and investigate hydrologic, geologic, and topographic features beneath and within the ice sheet. To highlight their scientific potential, we compare the digitized data with contemporary radar measurements to reveal that the remnant eastern ice shelf of Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica had thinned between 10 and 33% between 1978 and 2009. We also release the collection of scanned radargrams in their entirety in a persistent public archive along with updated geolocation data for a subset of the data that reduces the mean positioning error from 5 to 2.5 km. Together, these data represent a unique and renewed extensive, multidecadal historical baseline, critical for observing and modeling ice-sheet change on societally relevant timescales.
View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1821646116
View details for PubMedID 31481619
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In Situ Demonstration of a Passive Radio Sounding Approach Using the Sun for Echo Detection
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2018; 56 (12): 7338–49
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2018.2850662
View details for Web of Science ID 000451621000038
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Geometric Power Fall-Off in Radar Sounding
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
2018; 56 (11): 6571–85
View details for DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2018.2840511
View details for Web of Science ID 000448621000023
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A constraint upon the basal water distribution and thermal state of the Greenland Ice Sheet from radar bed echoes
CRYOSPHERE
2018; 12 (9): 2831–54
View details for DOI 10.5194/tc-12-2831-2018
View details for Web of Science ID 000443881100001
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Resolving the internal and basal geometry of ice masses using imaging phase-sensitive radar
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
2018; 64 (246): 649–60
View details for DOI 10.1017/jog.2018.54
View details for Web of Science ID 000442036700011
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Discovery of a hypersaline subglacial lake complex beneath Devon Ice Cap, Canadian Arctic.
Science advances
2018; 4 (4): eaar4353
Abstract
Subglacial lakes are unique environments that, despite the extreme dark and cold conditions, have been shown to host microbial life. Many subglacial lakes have been discovered beneath the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, but no spatially isolated water body has been documented as hypersaline. We use radio-echo sounding measurements to identify two subglacial lakes situated in bedrock troughs near the ice divide of Devon Ice Cap, Canadian Arctic. Modeled basal ice temperatures in the lake area are no higher than -10.5°C, suggesting that these lakes consist of hypersaline water. This implication of hypersalinity is in agreement with the surrounding geology, which indicates that the subglacial lakes are situated within an evaporite-rich sediment unit containing a bedded salt sequence, which likely act as the solute source for the brine. Our results reveal the first evidence for subglacial lakes in the Canadian Arctic and the first hypersaline subglacial lakes reported to date. We conclude that these previously unknown hypersaline subglacial lakes may represent significant and largely isolated microbial habitats, and are compelling analogs for potential ice-covered brine lakes and lenses on planetary bodies across the solar system.
View details for DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aar4353
View details for PubMedID 29651462
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC5895444
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Discovery of a hypersaline subglacial lake complex beneath Devon Ice Cap, Canadian Arctic
Science Advances
2018: eaar4353
Abstract
Subglacial lakes are unique environments that, despite the extreme dark and cold conditions, have been shown to host microbial life. Many subglacial lakes have been discovered beneath the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, but no spatially isolated water body has been documented as hypersaline. We use radio-echo sounding measurements to identify two subglacial lakes situated in bedrock troughs near the ice divide of Devon Ice Cap, Canadian Arctic. Modeled basal ice temperatures in the lake area are no higher than -10.5°C, suggesting that these lakes consist of hypersaline water. This implication of hypersalinity is in agreement with the surrounding geology, which indicates that the subglacial lakes are situated within an evaporite-rich sediment unit containing a bedded salt sequence, which likely act as the solute source for the brine. Our results reveal the first evidence for subglacial lakes in the Canadian Arctic and the first hypersaline subglacial lakes reported to date. We conclude that these previously unknown hypersaline subglacial lakes may represent significant and largely isolated microbial habitats, and are compelling analogs for potential ice-covered brine lakes and lenses on planetary bodies across the solar system.
View details for DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aar4353
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC5895444
- Retrieval of Englacial Firn Aquifer Thickness from Ice-Penetrating Radar Sounding in Southeastern Greenland Geophysical Research Letters 2018
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Surface Meltwater Impounded by Seasonal Englacial Storage in West Greenland
Geophysical Research Letters
2018
View details for DOI 10.1029/2018GL079787
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A Constraint Upon the Basal Water Distribution and Basal Thermal State of the Greenland Ice Sheet from Radar Bed-Echoes
The Cryosphere
2018
View details for DOI 10.5194/tc-2018-53
- Geometric Power Fall-off in Radar Sounding IEEE Transactions in Geoscience and Remote Sensing 2018
- Resolving the internal and basal geometry of ice masses using imaging phase-sensitive radar Journal of Glaciology 2018
- In-Situ Demonstration of a Passive Radio Sounding Approach Using the Sun for Echo Detection, IEEE Transactions in Geoscience and Remote Sensing 2018
- Complex Basal Thermal Transition Near the Onset of Petermann Glacier, Greenland Journal of Geophysical Research 2018
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Radar attenuation in Europa's ice shell: Obstacles and opportunities for constraining the shell thickness and its thermal structure
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
2017; 122 (3): 524-545
View details for DOI 10.1002/2016JE005110
View details for Web of Science ID 000399652100004
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Bright prospects for radar detection of Europa's ocean
ICARUS
2017; 281: 334-337
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.icarus.2016.08.014
View details for Web of Science ID 000385478100025
- An Interferometric Approach to Cross-Track Clutter Detection in Two-Channel VHF Radar Sounders IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 2017
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Ocean access beneath the southwest tributary of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica
Annals of Glaciology
2017
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2017.45
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Assessing the potential for measuring Europa's tidal Love number h2 using radar sounder and topographic imager data
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
2017
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.epsl.2017.11.028
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Mars radar clutter and surface roughness characteristics from MARSIS data
Icarus
2017
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.icarus.2017.07.011
- Self-affine subglacial roughness: consequences for radar scattering and basal water discrimination in northern Greenland The Cryosphere 2017
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Radar attenuation in Europa's ice shell: Obstacles and opportunities for constraining the shell thickness and its thermal structure
Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets
2017
View details for DOI 10.1002/2016JE005110
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Extensive winter subglacial water storage beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2016; 43 (24): 12484-12492
View details for DOI 10.1002/2016GL071538
View details for Web of Science ID 000392741900022
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Assessing the potential for passive radio sounding of Europa and Ganymede with RIME and REASON
PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE
2016; 134: 52-60
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.pss.2016.10.007
View details for Web of Science ID 000395847200005
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Prospects of passive radio detection of a subsurface ocean on Europa with a lander
PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE
2016; 129: 118-121
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.pss.2016.06.010
View details for Web of Science ID 000381323800011
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Subglacial controls on the flow of Institute Ice Stream, West Antarctica
ANNALS OF GLACIOLOGY
2016; 57 (73): 19-24
View details for DOI 10.1017/aog.2016.17
View details for Web of Science ID 000388953800004
- Evidence for Variable Grounding-Zone and Shear-Margin Basal Conditions Across Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica Geophysics 2016; 81 (1)
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Adaptively constraining radar attenuation and temperature across the Thwaites Glacier catchment using bed echoes
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
2016; 62 (236): 1075-1082
View details for DOI 10.1017/jog.2016.100
View details for Web of Science ID 000389173500008
- Rapid submarine ice melting in the grounding zones of ice shelves in West Antarctica Nature Communications 2016
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Deep radiostratigraphy of the East Antarctic plateau: connecting the Dome C and Vostok ice core sites
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
2016; 62 (232): 323-334
View details for DOI 10.1017/jog.2016.11
View details for Web of Science ID 000378825100009
- Assessing the potential for passive radio sounding of Europa and Ganymede with RIME and REASON Planetary and Space Science 2016
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Radar signal propagation through the ionosphere of Europa
PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE
2015; 117: 421-428
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.pss.2015.08.017
View details for Web of Science ID 000364257400035
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Ocean access to a cavity beneath Totten Glacier in East Antarctica
NATURE GEOSCIENCE
2015; 8 (4): 294-298
View details for DOI 10.1038/NGEO2388
View details for Web of Science ID 000352082300020
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Estimating Subglacial Water Geometry Using Radar Bed Echo Specularity: Application to Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS
2015; 12 (3): 443-447
View details for DOI 10.1109/LGRS.2014.2337878
View details for Web of Science ID 000344988800001
- The distribution of basal water between Antarctic subglacial lakes from radar sounding Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 2015; 374 (2059)
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Planetary landing-zone reconnaissance using ice-penetrating radar data: Concept validation in Antarctica
PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE
2014; 103: 191-204
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.pss.2014.07.018
View details for Web of Science ID 000345472000016
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Airborne radar sounding evidence for deformable sediments and outcropping bedrock beneath Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2014; 41 (20): 7200-7208
View details for DOI 10.1002/2014GL061645
View details for Web of Science ID 000345343100028
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Surface slope control on firn density at Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica: Results from airborne radar sounding
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
2014; 41 (19): 6787-6794
View details for DOI 10.1002/2014GL061635
View details for Web of Science ID 000344913800033
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Evidence for elevated and spatially variable geothermal flux beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
2014; 111 (25): 9070-9072
Abstract
Heterogeneous hydrologic, lithologic, and geologic basal boundary conditions can exert strong control on the evolution, stability, and sea level contribution of marine ice sheets. Geothermal flux is one of the most dynamically critical ice sheet boundary conditions but is extremely difficult to constrain at the scale required to understand and predict the behavior of rapidly changing glaciers. This lack of observational constraint on geothermal flux is particularly problematic for the glacier catchments of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet within the low topography of the West Antarctic Rift System where geothermal fluxes are expected to be high, heterogeneous, and possibly transient. We use airborne radar sounding data with a subglacial water routing model to estimate the distribution of basal melting and geothermal flux beneath Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica. We show that the Thwaites Glacier catchment has a minimum average geothermal flux of ∼ 114 ± 10 mW/m(2) with areas of high flux exceeding 200 mW/m(2) consistent with hypothesized rift-associated magmatic migration and volcanism. These areas of highest geothermal flux include the westernmost tributary of Thwaites Glacier adjacent to the subaerial Mount Takahe volcano and the upper reaches of the central tributary near the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core drilling site.
View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1405184s11
View details for Web of Science ID 000337760600029
View details for PubMedID 24927578
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4078843
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Meltwater intensive glacial retreat in polar environments and investigation of associated sediments: example from Pine Island Bay, West Antarctica
QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS
2014; 85: 99-118
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.11.021
View details for Web of Science ID 000331412200007
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Evidence for a water system transition beneath Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
2013; 110 (30): 12225-12228
Abstract
Thwaites Glacier is one of the largest, most rapidly changing glaciers on Earth, and its landward-sloping bed reaches the interior of the marine West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which impounds enough ice to yield meters of sea-level rise. Marine ice sheets with landward-sloping beds have a potentially unstable configuration in which acceleration can initiate or modulate grounding-line retreat and ice loss. Subglacial water has been observed and theorized to accelerate the flow of overlying ice dependent on whether it is hydrologically distributed or concentrated. However, the subglacial water systems of Thwaites Glacier and their control on ice flow have not been characterized by geophysical analysis. The only practical means of observing these water systems is airborne ice-penetrating radar, but existing radar analysis approaches cannot discriminate between their dynamically critical states. We use the angular distribution of energy in radar bed echoes to characterize both the extent and hydrologic state of subglacial water systems across Thwaites Glacier. We validate this approach with radar imaging, showing that substantial water volumes are ponding in a system of distributed canals upstream of a bedrock ridge that is breached and bordered by a system of concentrated channels. The transition between these systems occurs with increasing surface slope, melt-water flux, and basal shear stress. This indicates a feedback between the subglacial water system and overlying ice dynamics, which raises the possibility that subglacial water could trigger or facilitate a grounding-line retreat in Thwaites Glacier capable of spreading into the interior of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1302828110
View details for Web of Science ID 000322112300031
View details for PubMedID 23836631
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC3725042
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Weak bed control of the eastern shear margin of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
2013; 59 (217): 900-912
View details for DOI 10.3189/2013JoG13J050
View details for Web of Science ID 000325385200009
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Evidence of a hydrological connection between the ice divide and ice sheet margin in the Aurora Subglacial Basin, East Antarctica
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE
2012; 117
View details for DOI 10.1029/2011JF002066
View details for Web of Science ID 000301944300001
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A dynamic early East Antarctic Ice Sheet suggested by ice-covered fjord landscapes
NATURE
2011; 474 (7349): 72-75
Abstract
The first Cenozoic ice sheets initiated in Antarctica from the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains and other highlands as a result of rapid global cooling ∼34 million years ago. In the subsequent 20 million years, at a time of declining atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and an evolving Antarctic circumpolar current, sedimentary sequence interpretation and numerical modelling suggest that cyclical periods of ice-sheet expansion to the continental margin, followed by retreat to the subglacial highlands, occurred up to thirty times. These fluctuations were paced by orbital changes and were a major influence on global sea levels. Ice-sheet models show that the nature of such oscillations is critically dependent on the pattern and extent of Antarctic topographic lowlands. Here we show that the basal topography of the Aurora Subglacial Basin of East Antarctica, at present overlain by 2-4.5 km of ice, is characterized by a series of well-defined topographic channels within a mountain block landscape. The identification of this fjord landscape, based on new data from ice-penetrating radar, provides an improved understanding of the topography of the Aurora Subglacial Basin and its surroundings, and reveals a complex surface sculpted by a succession of ice-sheet configurations substantially different from today's. At different stages during its fluctuations, the edge of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet lay pinned along the margins of the Aurora Subglacial Basin, the upland boundaries of which are currently above sea level and the deepest parts of which are more than 1 km below sea level. Although the timing of the channel incision remains uncertain, our results suggest that the fjord landscape was carved by at least two iceflow regimes of different scales and directions, each of which would have over-deepened existing topographic depressions, reversing valley floor slopes.
View details for DOI 10.1038/nature10114
View details for Web of Science ID 000291156700039
View details for PubMedID 21637255
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1916-3929