Radar sounding of ice sheet near-surface processes
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Ice-penetrating radar is powerful tool for imaging the englacial and subglacial conditions that modulate mass loss and sea level contributions from Earth's ice sheets. Instrument design, data collection, and quantitative data analysis efforts have traditionally focused on resolving the conditions at the ice-bed interface that influence ice velocity. However, the structure and water storage capacity of the glacial near-surface are also important sources of uncertainty in projections of future mass loss from the runoff of surface meltwater, as well as potential impediments to deeper radar imaging. This is because the top of the ice column consists of a 50-100m thick layer of porous, compacting snow known as firn. Firn structure is controlled by past and present temperatures, accumulation rates, and surface melt rates, and this direct coupling to atmospheric conditions makes the firn one of the most heterogeneous and rapidly changing components of the ice sheet system. Here, I develop glaciologically-informed electromagnetic models that link physical conditions in the ice-sheet near-surface to their expressions in measurable properties of airborne ice-penetrating radar data. I combine these models with inverse methods to study the impact of near-surface heterogeneity on the performance of orbital radar ice sounders, characterize the long-term impact of extreme melt seasons on the near-surface structure and hydrology of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and constrain the physical processes governing double ridge formation on Europa based on an analog feature observed in Northwest Greenland.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2022; ©2022 |
| Publication date | 2022; 2022 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Culberg, Riley Taylor |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Schroeder, Dustin |
| Thesis advisor | Schroeder, Dustin |
| Thesis advisor | Wetzstein, Gordon |
| Thesis advisor | Zebker, Howard A |
| Degree committee member | Wetzstein, Gordon |
| Degree committee member | Zebker, Howard A |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Electrical Engineering |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Riley Taylor Culberg. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/jz116bt7781 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2022 by Riley Taylor Culberg
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