Volume 11 Issue 3
Jun.  2022
Turn off MathJax
Article Contents
Article Navigation >  Journal of Radars  > 2022  >  11(3): 479-498
XIAO Peng, YU Zhitong, CHEN Zhuoqi, et al. Orbital radar sounding of earth’s ice sheets: Opportunities and challenges[J]. Journal of Radars, 2022, 11(3): 479–498. doi: 10.12000/JR21196
Citation: XIAO Peng, YU Zhitong, CHEN Zhuoqi, et al. Orbital radar sounding of earth’s ice sheets: Opportunities and challenges[J]. Journal of Radars, 2022, 11(3): 479–498. doi: 10.12000/JR21196
shu

Orbital Radar Sounding of Earth’s Ice Sheets: Opportunities and Challenges

DOI: 10.12000/JR21196
  • 1.

    Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China

  • 2.

    School of Geospatial Engineering and Science, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China

  • 3.

    Polar Research Institute of China, Shanghai 200136, China

  • 4.

    Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100094, China

  • 5.

    Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China

  • 6.

    DFH Satellite Co., Ltd., China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China

Funds:  DFH Joint Research and Development Fund, Young Talents Fund of China Academy of Space Technology, The National Natural Science Foundation of China (42074225, 41601483, 41730102)
More Information
  • Corresponding author: XIAO Peng, xiaopeng_email1984@163.com; YU Zhitong, yuzhitong@qxslab.cn
  • Received Date: 2021-11-30
  • Accepted Date: 2022-01-22
  • Rev Recd Date: 2022-01-11
    • Available Online: 2022-01-25
  • Publish Date: 2022-02-24
    Abstract
  • Owing to the enormous amount of frozen water and the particularity of heat exchange, polar ice sheets act as an important indicator and amplifier of global climate change. However, the detection and cognition of the tomographic structure of polar ice sheets remain insufficient due to the special geographical location and harsh weather. Benefit from the advantage of strong penetrability and high-precision range measurement, the ice sounding radar is an optimal instrument for tomographic detection of polar ice sheets, which significantly promotes the development of polar science. Nevertheless, existing radar satellites still cannot detect ice beds in depth because of the complex low-frequency signal propagation in ice and an extremely long operating distance. This study focuses on the scientific objectives (spatial resolution: 100 m and revisit time: 3 months) and presents an in-depth analysis of the key problems of orbital ice sounding radar, including transmission attenuation, firn clutter, and cross-track resolution deterioration. With reference to the current state and trend of radar satellite technology, we proved the feasibility of the application of distributed Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on the microsatellite platform for ice bed detection, identified the key parameters of distributed SAR and the technical challenges of orbital radar sounding system for polar ice sheet tomographic observation, and further explored the implementation scheme.

     

    • FullText(HTML)
  • loading
    • References(78)
  • [1]
    PÖRTNER H O, ROBERTS D C, MASSON-DELMOTTE V, et al. IPCC special report on the ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate[R/OL]. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/3/2019/12/SROCC_FullReport_FINAL.pdf, 2019.
    [2]
    https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/antarct/science/icesheet.jsp.
    [3]
    FARINOTTI D, HUSS M, FÜRST J J, et al. A consensus estimate for the ice thickness distribution of all glaciers on Earth[J]. Nature Geoscience, 2019, 12(3): 168–173. doi: 10.1038/s41561-019-0300-3
    [4]
    LIU Yan, MOORE J C, CHENG Xiao, et al. Ocean-driven thinning enhances iceberg calving and retreat of Antarctic ice shelves[J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015, 112(11): 3263–3268. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1415137112
    [5]
    STOCKER T F, QIN D, PLATTNER G K, et al. Climate change 2013: The physical science basis[R]. 2014. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781107415324.
    [6]
    车涛, 李新, 李新武, 等. 冰冻圈遥感: 助力“三极”大科学计划[J]. 中国科学院院刊, 2020, 35(4): 484–493. doi: 10.16418/j.issn.1000-3045.20200323001

    CHE Tao, LI Xin, LI Xinwu, et al. Developing cryospheric remote sensing, promoting scientific programme of earth’s three poles[J]. Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2020, 35(4): 484–493. doi: 10.16418/j.issn.1000-3045.20200323001
    [7]
    崔祥斌, 孙波, 张向培, 等. 极地冰盖冰雷达探测技术的发展综述[J]. 极地研究, 2009, 21(4): 322–335.

    CUI Xiangbin, SUN Bo, ZHANG Xiangpei, et al. A review of ice radar’s technical development in polar ice sheet investigation[J]. Chinese Journal of Polar Research, 2009, 21(4): 322–335.
    [8]
    VAUGHAN D G and ARTHERN R. Why is it hard to predict the future of ice sheets?[J]. Science, 2007, 315(5818): 1503–1504. doi: 10.1126/science.1141111
    [9]
    IVINS E R. Ice sheet stability and sea level[J]. Science, 2009, 324(5929): 888–889. doi: 10.1126/science.1173958
    [10]
    KENNICUTT M C, CHOWN S L, CASSANO J J, et al. Polar research: Six priorities for Antarctic science[J]. Nature, 2014, 512(7512): 23–25. doi: 10.1038/512023a
    [11]
    JOUGHIN I, SMITH B E, and MEDLEY B. Marine ice sheet collapse potentially under way for the Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica[J]. Science, 2014, 344(6185): 735–738. doi: 10.1126/science.1249055
    [12]
    BELL R E, FERRACCIOLI F, CREYTS T T, et al. Widespread persistent thickening of the east Antarctic ice sheet by freezing from the base[J]. Science, 2011, 331(6024): 1592–1595. doi: 10.1126/science.1200109
    [13]
    WAITE A H. Ice depth soundings with ultra-high frequency radio waves in the Arctic and Antarctic, and some observed over-ice altimeter errors[R]. Technical Report 2092, 1959.
    [14]
    EVANS S. Radio techniques for the measurement of ice thickness[J]. Polar Record, 1963, 11(73): 406–410. doi: 10.1017/S0032247400053523
    [15]
    SIEGERT M J. On the origin, nature and uses of Antarctic ice-sheet radio-echo layering[J]. Progress in Physical Geography:Earth and Environment, 1999, 23(2): 159–179. doi: 10.1191/030913399671124903
    [16]
    DREWRY D J. Antarctica: Glaciological and Geophysical Folio[M]. Cambridge, U.K.: Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, 1983. ISBN: 0901021040.
    [17]
    CHUAH T S. Design and development of a coherent radar depth sounder for measurement of Greenland ice sheet thickness[R]. RSL Technical. Report 10470–5, 1997. https://cresis.ku.edu/sites/default/files/biblio/TechRpt151.pdf.
    [18]
    GOGINENI S, TAMMANA D, BRAATEN D, et al. Coherent radar ice thickness measurements over the Greenland ice sheet[J]. Journal of Geophysical Research, 200l, 106(D24): 33761–33772.
    [19]
    BAMBER J L, LAYBERRY R L, and GOGINENI S P. A new ice thickness and bed data set for the Greenland ice sheet: 1. Measurement, data reduction, and errors[J]. Journal of Geophysical Research, 2001, 106(D24): 33773–33780. doi: 10.1029/2001JD900054
    [20]
    PADEN J, MOZAFFAR S, DUNSON D, et al. Multiband multistatic synthetic aperture radar for measuring ice sheet basal conditions[C]. 2004 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Anchorage, USA, 2004: 139.
    [21]
    MATSUOKA K, FURUKAWA T, FUJITA S, et al. Crystal orientation fabrics within the Antarctic ice sheet revealed by a multipolarization plane and dual-frequency radar survey[J]. Journal of Geophysical Research, 2003, 108(B10): 2499. doi: 10.1029/2003JB002425
    [22]
    STUDINGER M, KOENIG L, MARTIN S, et al. Operation icebridge: Using instrumented aircraft to bridge the observational gap between icesat and icesat-2[C]. 2010 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Honolulu, USA, 2010: 1918–1919.
    [23]
    杨树瑚, 顾祈明, 张云, 等. 利用冰雷达诊断南极冰盖底部环境的研究综述[J]. 极地研究, 2016, 28(2): 277–286. doi: 10.13679/j.jdyj.2016.2.277

    YANG Shuhu, GU Qiming, ZHANG Yun, et al. A review of the use of ice penetrating radar to diagnose the subglacial environments[J]. Chinese Journal of Polar Research, 2016, 28(2): 277–286. doi: 10.13679/j.jdyj.2016.2.277
    [24]
    WANG Bangbing, TIAN Gang, CUI Xiangbin, et al. The internal COF features in Dome A of Antarctica revealed by multi-polarization-plane RES[J]. Applied Geophysics, 2008, 5(3): 230–237. doi: 10.1007/s11770-008-0029-z
    [25]
    SUN Bo, SIEGERT M J, MUDD S M, et al. The Gamburtsev mountains and the origin and early evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet[J]. Nature, 2009, 459(7247): 690–693. doi: 10.1038/nature08024
    [26]
    CUI Xiangbin, GREENBAUM J S, BEEM L H, et al. The first fixed-wing aircraft for Chinese Antarctic expeditions: Airframe, modifications, scientific instrumentation and applications[J]. Journal of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, 2018, 23(1): 1–13. doi: 10.2113/JEEG23.1.1
    [27]
    CUI Xiangbin, JEOFRY H, GREENBAUM J S, et al. Bed topography of princess Elizabeth Land in East Antarctica[J]. Earth System Science Data, 2020, 12(4): 2765–2774. doi: 10.5194/essd-12-2765-2020
    [28]
    FRETWELL P, PRITCHARD H D, VAUGHAN D G, et al. Bedmap2: Improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica[J]. The Cryosphere Discussions, 2012, 6: 4305–4361. doi: 10.5194/tcd-6-4305-2012
    [29]
    MORLIGHEM M, RIGNOT E, BINDER T, et al. Deep glacial troughs and stabilizing ridges unveiled beneath the margins of the Antarctic ice sheet[J]. Nature Geoscience, 2020, 13(2): 132–137. doi: 10.1038/s41561-019-0510-8
    [30]
    MACKIE E J, SCHROEDER D M, CAERS J, et al. Antarctic topographic realizations and geostatistical modeling used to map Subglacial Lakes[J]. Journal of Geophysical Research, 2020, 125(3): e2019JF005420. doi: 10.1029/2019JF005420
    [31]
    GCOS. The global observing system for climate: Implementation needs (GCOS-200)[EB/OL]. https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=3417, 2016.
    [32]
    VERTENSTEIN M, CRAIG T, MIDDLETON A, et al. CESM 1.0. 4 user’s guide[R/OL]. http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/models/cesm1.0/cesm/cesm_doc_1_0_4/book1.html, 2012.
    [33]
    万修全, 刘泽栋, 沈飙, 等. 地球系统模式CESM及其在高性能计算机上的配置应用实例[J]. 地球科学进展, 2014, 29(4): 482–491. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2014.04.0482

    WAN Xiuquan, LIU Zedong, SHEN Biao, et al. Introduction to the community earth system model and application to high performance computing[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2014, 29(4): 482–491. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2014.04.0482
    [34]
    林岩銮, 王磊, 苏洁, 等. 全球气候系统中冰冻圈的模拟研究[M]. 北京: 科学出版社, 2019: 145–147.

    LIN Yanluan, WANG Lei, SU Jie, et al. Simulation of Cryosphere in Global Climate System[M]. Beijing: Science Press, 2019: 145–147.
    [35]
    GOGINENI S, PRESCOTT G, BRAATEN D, et al. Polar radar for ice sheet measurements[C]. 2003 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Toulouse, France, 2003: 1607–1609.
    [36]
    https://globalcryospherewatch.org/satellites/overview.html.
    [37]
    https://europa.nasa.gov/spacecraft/instruments/reason/.
    [38]
    https://sci.esa.int/web/rosetta/-/35061-instruments?section=consert-comet-nucleus-sounding-experiment-by-radiowave-transmission.
    [39]
    ZOU Yongliao, ZHU Yan, BAI Yunfei, et al. Scientific objectives and payloads of Tianwen-1, China’s first Mars exploration mission[J]. Advances in Space Research, 2021, 67(2): 812–823. doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2020.11.005
    [40]
    PICARDI G, BICCARI D, SEU R, et al. MARSIS: Mars advanced radar for subsurface and ionosphere sounding[R/OL]. https://sci.esa.int/documents/33745/35957/1567254616449-PicardiWeb.pdf, 2004.
    [41]
    SEU R, BICCARI D, OROSEI R, et al. SHARAD: The MRO 2005 shallow radar[J]. Planetary and Space Science, 2004, 52(1/3): 157–166. doi: 10.1016/j.pss.2003.08.024
    [42]
    HEGGY E, ROSEN P A, BEATTY R, et al. Orbiting arid subsurface and ice sheet sounder (OASIS): Exploring desert aquifers and polar ice sheets and their role in current and paleo-climate evolution[C]. 2013 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Melbourne, Australia, 2013: 3483–3486.
    [43]
    FREEMAN A, PI Xiaoqing, and HEGGY E. Radar sounding through the Earth's ionosphere at 45 MHz[J]. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2017, 55(10): 5833–5842. doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2017.2715838
    [44]
    HEGGY E, ROSEN P A, BEATTY R, et al. Exploring desert aquifers and polar ice sheets and their responses to climate evolution: OASIS mission concept[C]. The 1st Springer Conference of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences, Tunisia, 2018: 7–10.
    [45]
    HEGGY E. Exploring deserts response to climate change from the orbiting arid subsurface and ice sheet sounder (OASIS)[C]. 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Brussels, Belgium, 2021: 655–656.
    [46]
    SANDER K F and REED G A L. Transmission and Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves[M]. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986: 13–19.
    [47]
    MATSUOKA T, FUJITA S, and MAE S. Effect of temperature on dielectric properties of ice in the range 5–39 GHz[J]. Journal of Applied Physics, 1996, 80(10): 5884–5890. doi: 10.1063/1.363582
    [48]
    MÄTZLER C and WEGMÜLLER U. Dielectric properties of freshwater ice at microwave frequencies[J]. Journal of Physics D:Applied Physics, 1987, 20(12): 1623–1630. doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/20/12/013
    [49]
    CORR H, MOORE J C, and NICHOLLS K W. Radar absorption due to impurities in Antarctic ice[J]. Geophysical Research Letters, 1993, 20(11): 1071–1074. doi: 10.1029/93GL01395
    [50]
    MATSUOKA K, MACGREGOR J A, and PATTYN F. Predicting radar attenuation within the Antarctic ice sheet[J]. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2012, 359/360: 173–183. doi: 10.1016/j.jpgl.2012.10.018
    [51]
    PATTYN F. Antarctic subglacial conditions inferred from a hybrid ice sheet/ice stream model[J]. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2010, 295(3/4): 451–461. doi: 10.1016/j.jpgl.2010.04.025
    [52]
    HINDMARSH R C A and LE MEUR E. Dynamical processes involved in the retreat of marine ice sheets[J]. Journal of Glaciology, 2001, 47(157): 271–282. doi: 10.3189/172756501781832269
    [53]
    http://websrv.cs.umt.edu/isis/index.php/Data.
    [54]
    SCHROEDER D M, BIENERT N L, CULBERG R, et al. Glaciological constraints on link budgets for orbital radar sounding of Earth's ice sheets[C]. 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Brussels, Belgium, 2021: 647–650.
    [55]
    CULBERG R and SCHROEDER D M. Firn clutter constraints on the design and performance of orbital radar ice sounders[J]. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2020, 58(9): 6344–6361. doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2020.2976666
    [56]
    ULABY F T and DOBSON M C. Handbook of Radar Scattering Statistics for Terrain[M]. Norwood, USA: Artech House, 1989: 287–288.
    [57]
    稂时楠. 极地高分辨率冰雷达成像与数据处理方法研究[D]. 北京: 中国科学院大学, 2015: 19–20. https://d.wanfangdata.com.cn/thesis/Y2851481.

    LANG Shinan. Research on the Imaging and Signal Processing of High-resolution Ice-sounding Radar[D]. Beijing: The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2015: 19–20. https://d.wanfangdata.com.cn/thesis/Y2851481.
    [58]
    CARRER L, GEREKOS C, BOVOLO F, et al. Distributed radar sounder: A novel concept for subsurface investigations using sensors in formation flight[J]. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2019, 57(12): 9791–9809. doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2019.2929422
    [59]
    HAYNES M S, BEAUCHAMP R M, KHAZENDAR A, et al. Debris: Distributed element beamformer radar for ice and subsurface sounding[C]. 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Brussels, Belgium, 2021: 651–654.
    [60]
    BRUZZONE L, BOVOLO F, CARRER L, et al. STRATUS: A new mission concept for monitoring the subsurface of polar and arid regions[C]. 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Brussels, Belgium, 2021: 661–664.
    [61]
    GOGINENI S, YAN S, SONG P, et al. UWB MIMO radars for sounding and imaging of ice on the Earth and other celestial bodies[C]. 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Brussels, Belgium, 2021: 657–660.
    [62]
    GOGINENI P, SIMPSON C R, YAN Jiebang, et al. A CubeSat train for radar sounding and imaging of Antarctic ice sheet[C]. 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Valencia, Spain, 2018: 4138–4141.
    [63]
    HEIMILLER R C, BELYEA J E, and TOMLINSON P G. Distributed array radar[J]. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 1983, AES-19(6): 831–839. doi: 10.1109/TAES.1983.309395
    [64]
    CHRISTIANSON K, JACOBEL R W, HORGAN H J, et al. Basal conditions at the grounding zone of Whillans ice stream, west Antarctica, from ice-penetrating radar[J]. Journal of Geophysical Research, 2016, 121(11): 1954–1983. doi: 10.1002/2015JF003806
    [65]
    XIAO Peng, GUO Wei, LIU Bo, et al. A spaceborne multistatic radar sounding system for the tomographic observation of polar ice sheets[J]. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 2022, 19: 3502205. doi: 10.1109/LGRS.2020.3043356
    [66]
    NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) mission science users’ handbook[R]. 2018. https://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov/system/documents/files/26_NISAR_FINAL_9-6-19.pdf?_ga=2.129501448.504649304.1621295245-843208160.1541002583.
    [67]
    CARBONE A, COSTA G, FEHRINGER M, et al. The biomass system - overview and development status[C]. 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Brussels, Belgium, 2021: 775–778.
    [68]
    HUBER S, DE ALMEIDA F Q, VILLANO M, et al. Tandem-L: A technical perspective on future spaceborne SAR sensors for Earth observation[J]. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2018, 56(8): 4792–4807. doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2018.2837673
    [69]
    张威, 尹冉冉, 沈俊. TerreStar卫星移动通信系统[J]. 数字通信世界, 2012(1): 32–34. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-7274.2012.01.007

    ZHANG Wei, YIN Ranran, and SHEN Jun. TerreStar satellite mobile communication system[J]. Digital Communication World, 2012(1): 32–34. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-7274.2012.01.007
    [70]
    BREIT H, YOUNIS M, BALSS U, et al. Bistatic synchronization and processing of TanDEM-X data[C]. 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Vancouver, Canada, 2011: 2424–2427.
    [71]
    LIANG Da, Liu Kaiyu, Zhang Heng, Z et al. An advanced non-interrupted phase synchronization scheme with internal calibration for LuTan-1[C]. The 13th European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar, 2021. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9472743.
    [72]
    ŚWIERAD D, HÄFNER S, VOGT S, et al. Ultra-stable clock laser system development towards space applications[J]. Scientific Reports, 2016, 6(1): 33973. doi: 10.1038/srep33973
    [73]
    LEZIUS M, WILKEN T, DEUTSCH C, et al. Space-borne frequency comb metrology[J]. Optica, 2016, 3(12): 1381–1387. doi: 10.1364/optica.3.001381
    [74]
    MCGREW W F, ZHANG X, FASANO R, et al. Atomic clock performance enabling geodesy below the centimetre level[J]. Nature, 2018, 564(7734): 87–90. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0738-2
    [75]
    HINKLEY N, SHERMAN J A, PHILLIPS N B, et al. An atomic clock with 10–18 instability[J]. Science, 2013, 341(6151): 1215–1218. doi: 10.1126/science.1240420
    [76]
    NICHOLSON T L, CAMPBELL S L, HUTSON R B, et al. Systematic evaluation of an atomic clock at 2×10−18 total uncertainty[J]. Nature Communications, 2015, 6(1): 6896. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7896
    [77]
    MITTERMAYER J, KRIEGER G, BOJARSKI A, et al. MirrorSAR: An HRWS add-on for single-pass multi-baseline SAR interferometry[J]. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, in press, 2021.
    [78]
    PERAL E, TANELLI S, STATHAM S, et al. Raincube - A new paradigm to observe weather processes[C]. 2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Yokohama, Japan, 2019: 4978–4981.
    • Relative Articles
    • Supplements(0)
    • Cited By
  • 加载中

Catalog

    通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com
    • 1. 

      沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院 沈阳 110142

    1. 本站搜索
    2. 百度学术搜索
    3. 万方数据库搜索
    4. CNKI搜索
    Get Citation
    PDF
    XML
    Article views(2978) PDF downloads(319) Cited by()
    Proportional views
    Related

    京ICP备20021838号-8   Supported by: Beijing Renhe Information Technology Co. Ltd     百度统计

    /

    DownLoad:  Full-Size Img  PowerPoint
    Return