Brief communication: Bed mapping of southern Greenland outlet glaciers using helicopter-borne ground penetrating radar (AIRETH)
Abstract. Here we present the first southern Greenland deployment of the re-designed Airborne Ice Radar of ETH Zürich (AIRETH). We surveyed a total of 348 km of profiles over three outlet glaciers, identifying basal reflections along 102 km (29 %) of the flight lines. The 25 MHz antennas configuration achieved an effective penetration depth of about 300 m and a maximum measured ice thickness of about 340 m, with bed detectability decreasing over thicker and/or heavily crevassed ice. These results define the depth limitation of our system and show that terrain-following helicopter surveys can provide targeted constraints that complement existing datasets in complex topography.
Authors
- Ilaria Santin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3566-2189)
- Hansruedi Maurer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0131-1006)
- Daniel Farinotti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3417-4570)
- Faezeh M. Nick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0432-585X)
- Andreas Vieli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2870-5921)
- Huw Horgan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4836-0078)
- Nanna B. Karlsson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0423-8705)
- Raphael Moser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3274-0997)
- A. Rutishauser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1819-8014)
Institutions
- Utrecht University (NL)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (CH)
- Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (DK)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Victoria University of Wellington (NZ)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The cryosphere
- Published
- 2026-06-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3435-2026
- Primary Topic
- Cryospheric studies and observations
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Carlsbergfondet