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Science 24 September 1993:
Vol. 261. no. 5129, pp. 1710 - 1713
DOI: 10.1126/science.261.5129.1710
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Articles

Unusual Radar Echoes from the Greenland Ice Sheet

E. J. Rignot 1, S. J. Ostro 1, J. J. van Zyl 1, and K. C. Jezek 2

1 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109
2 Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210

Airborne radar images of part of the Greenland ice sheet reveal icy terrain whose radar properties are unique among radar-studied terrestrial surfaces but resemble those of Jupiter's icy Galilean satellites. The 5.6- and 24-centimeter-wavelength echoes from the Greenland percolation zone, like the 3.5- and 13-centimeter-wavelength echoes from the icy satellites, are extremely intense and have anomalous circular and linear polarization ratios. However, the detailed subsurface configurations of the Galilean satellite regoliths, where heterogeneities are the product of prolonged meteoroid bombardment, are unlikely to resemble that within the Greenland percolation zone, where heterogeneities are the product of seasonal melting and refreezing.

Submitted on April 28, 1993
Accepted on August 2, 1993


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A review of the use of radio-echo sounding in glaciology.
L. A. Plewes and B. Hubbard (2001)
Progress in Physical Geography 25, 203-236
   Abstract »    PDF »
Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Properties and Ice Dynamics from ERS-1 SAR Imagery.
M. Fahnestock, M. Fahnestock, R. Bindschadler, R. Kwok, and K. Jezek (1993)
Science 262, 1530-1534
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)