These transect projected radargrams were collected as part of the Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX) Science and Technology Center (https://www.coldex.org) in the 2022/23 (CXA1) and 2023/24 (CXA2) airborne field seasons. The raw 3 TB data is deposited at the USAP data center at https://doi.org/10.15784/601768. The set of images in this archive was designed for easy, non expert, access to radargrams, organized according to survey design.
The science goal was to characterize the ice sheet between Antarctica's Dome A and Amundsen Scott South Pole Station, to locate sites of interest for the drilling of an ice core with ages spanning the mid-Pleistocene. The radar was deployed on Balser C-FMKB, and flown at ranges of up to 800 km from South Pole Station at velocities of 90 m/s and typical altitude above ground of 600 m. Other instruments included a UHF array system provided by the University of Kansas, a gravity meter, a magnetometer, a laser altimeter, and multiple global navigation satellite systems receivers. The radar data is used for finding ice thickness, bed character, englacial structure and surface assessment.
Dataset organization Transects are provided a P/S/T nomenclature, organized by the Project they are flying in, the acquisition System (typically named after the aircraft) and the Transect within the Project.
Transects were collected in preplanned systems with the following parameters (examples below):
The CLX radials (CLX/MKB##/R###), attempting to emulate flow lines from Dome A and radiating (in the EPSG:3031 polar stereographic projection) from easting 965 km northing 385 km, with a separation of 0.25 degrees.
The CLX corridor (CLX/MKB##/X###) rotated from the EPSG:3031 polar stereographic projection at -150 degrees and separated by 10 km in the Y direction and 3.75 km in the X direction
The CLX2 corridor (CLX2/MKB##/X###) rotated from the EPSG:3031 polar stereographic projection at -150 degrees and separated by 2.5 km in its Y direction and 2.5 km in its X direction
The NPXE radials (NPXE/MKB##/R###) radiating (in the EPSG:3031 polar stereographic projection) from easting 0 km and northing 0 km (ie South Pole), with a separation of 2 degrees.
The SAD corridor (SAD/MKB##/X###|Y####) designed to characterize the Saddle region near South Pole approximately perpendicular to the flow lines, rooted from the EPSG:3031 polar stereographic projection at -73.8 degrees and separated by 2.5 km in its Y direction and 2.5 km in the its X direction
Untargeted transit lines used the name of the expedition (CXA1) as the project, and used the flight and the increment within the flight to name the Transect (eg (CXA1/MKB2n/F10T02a).
Processing These images were processed using the CReSIS Synthetic Aperture Radar Processor (CSARP), as part of the Open Polar Radar Effort. Data were processed using pulse compression and matched filter approach for focusing optimized for producing data with 25 m along track sampling. Radio Frequency Interference was partially removed. See the Open Polar Radar server for more detail.
Data format Radar data is provided in three formats:
Browse data in PNG format are provided with marked axis depth projected, correcting for the velocity of ice, and projected along track into consistent project coordinates. Turns are trimmed off. Long transects are projected to ~30x vertical exaggeration, shorter transects have constant size.
Image data in grayscale JPEG format are provided without ornamentation. but are depth projected, correcting for the velocity of ice, and projected along track into consistent project coordinates. Turns are trimmed off. All images have a constant vertical scale of 1.69 m/pixel and horizontal scale of 25 m per pixel. The minimum black value corresponds to -140 dB, and the maximum white value corresponds to 0 dB, for a resolution of ~0.5 dB. Use of this data for radiometric interpretation has not been validated.
Metadata is provided in in comma delimited csv format. Columns included:
CSARP record (the number of record or trace in the original flight based processing
UNIX time [s] (seconds from midnight January 1, 1970, with no leap seconds)
Longitude [degrees] (WGS-84)
Latitude [degrees] (WGS-84)
Aircraft Elevation [m] (WGS-84)
Surface Echo Delay [s] (time delay between surface echo and transmission)
Roll [degrees] (right wing down positive)
Pitch [degrees] (nose down positive)
Heading [degrees] (right of North)
EPSG 3031 Easting [m] (projected coordinate)
EPSG 3031 Northing [m] (projected coordinate)
displayed_distance [km] (x-axis distance)
surface_elevation [m] (radar estimate surface elevation, WGS-84)
blanking [px] (sampled (blanked above surface return)
Elevation of image top [m] (WGS-84 elevation of the top of the projected image)
Elevation of image bottom [m] (WGS-84 elevation of the bottom of the projected image)
A summary csv file is provided with transect name, start and end points in geographic and projected coordinates, and projection.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Center for Oldest Ice Exploration, an NSF Science and Technology Center (NSF 2019719). We thank the NSF Office of Polar Programs, the NSF Office of Integrative Activities, and Oregon State University for financial and infrastructure support, and the NSF Antarctic Infrastructure and Logistics Program, and the Antarctic Support Contractor for logistical support. Additional support was provided by the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation and the NSF-sponsored Open Polar Radar project (NSF 2126503 & 2127606).
(2024-05-16)
