Description: Ice shelves surrounding the Antarctic perimeter moderate ice discharge towards the ocean through buttressing. Ice-shelf evolution and integrity depend on the local surface accumulation, basal melting and on the spatially variable ice-shelf viscosity. These components of ice-shelf mass balance are often poorly constrained by observations and introduce uncertainties in ice-sheet projections. Isochronal radar stratigraphy is an observational archive for the atmospheric, oceanographic and ice-flow history of ice shelves. Here, we predict the stratigraphy of locally accumulated ice on ice shelves with a kinematic forward model for a given atmospheric and oceanographic scenario. This delineates the boundary between local meteoric ice (LMI) and continental meteoric ice (CMI). A large LMI to CMI ratio hereby marks ice shelves whose buttressing strength is more sensitive to changes in atmospheric precipitation patterns. A mismatch between the steady-state predictions of the kinematic forward model and observations from radar can highlight inconsistencies in the atmospheric and oceanographic input data or be an indicator for a transient ice-shelf history not accounted for in the model. We discuss pitfalls in numerical diffusion when calculating the age field and validate the kinematic model with the full Stokes ice-flow model Elmer/Ice. The Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf (East Antarctica) serves as a test case for this approach. There, we find a significant east–west gradient in the LMI / CMI ratio. The steady-state predictions concur with observations on larger spatial scales (〉10 km), but deviations on smaller scales are significant, e.g., because local surface accumulation patterns near the grounding zone are underestimated in Antarctic-wide estimates. Future studies can use these mismatches to optimize the input data or to pinpoint transient signatures in the ice-shelf history using the ever growing archive of radar observations of internal ice stratigraphy.

Description: This dataset is supplementary material for the manuscript "Autonomous Rover Enables Radar Profiling of Ice-Fabric Properties in Antarctica" submitted to TGRS-IEEE journal (under review). The dataset comprises phase-sensitive radio echo sounder (pRES) radar data collected in quad-polarimetric Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) mode during the Antarctic field season 2021-22 at the grounding zone of Ekström Ice Shelf in East Antarctica and was gathered with the logistical support of the Neumayer III station (Wesche et al., 2016). The dataset consists of several profiles: 1. Profile 1: 18 km, along-flow across grounding zone; 5 km were collected with 20 m shot spacing (QP_AlongFlow_20mSpacing) and 13 km with 100 m shot spacing (QP_AlongFlow_100mSpacing). 2. Profile 2: 5 km across-flow measurement at the grounding zone with 100 m spacings (QP_AcrossFlow_100mSpacing). 3. Profile 3: 0.7 km west of Neumayer III station with 1.5 m shot spacings (Neumayer_SAR_1.5mSpacing). 4. Two datasets of continuous measurements were obtained in a single burst while the rover was in motion (ContinuousQP). The data were collected to detect the change of ice fabric anisotropy in the grounding zone, where the ice transitions from grounded to floating. Additionally, the collection of quad-polarimetric MIMO pRES data was a proof of concept for autonomous data acquisition. The radar system was towed by an autonomous ice rover to predefined coordinates, triggering the radar. The antenna setup used a non-standard [Transmitter (VH) - (HV) Receiver] combination for quad-polarimetric (QP) data acquisition, requiring special consideration during processing, as detailed in the main paper (under review - TGRS IEEE) and RezaErshadi/pRES_InTheField_101 GitHub repository (doi:10.5281/zenodo.10064672). For the SAR profile the [Transmitter (HH) - (HH) Receiver] antenna setup was used. The pRES data were collected in standard mode using a 1-s chirp (Nicholls et al., 2015) in start-stop mode unless otherwise specified.

Description: Using a novel mobile phase-sensitive radio echo sounder (pRES) system, radar profiling was conducted at Colle Gnifetti, Monte Rosa massif (Swiss–Italian Alps) in September 2021 to detect its deep englacial radiostratigraphy. The pRES (also denoted as autonomous pRES (ApRES) for stationary operations) is a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar operating at 200 to 400 MHz (Brennan et al., 2014). It provides phase-coherent radar data, which enables the application of Layer-optimized Synthetic Aperture Radar (LO-SAR) processing to improve the detectability of internal reflection horizons. We mobilized the pRES by placing its skeleton antennas in inflated tractor inner tubes and connecting them with a wooden frame. The antennas were separated by 2.7 m (center-to-center), elevated a few centimeters above the snow surface and their dipole axes were oriented perpendicular to the profiling direction. The data were acquired in stop-and-go mode with a median trace spacing of approximately 13 cm. Positioning was controlled by the Trimble® R9s GNSS system, operated in RTK mode. A profile with a total length of 285 m was acquired. It is split into two transects, a 166 m long transect across the glacier saddle that passes the drill location of the CG03 ice core (Sigl et al., 2018), and an intersecting 119 m long transect upstream towards south/the KCC ice core (Kerch et al., 2018).

Description: Ice shelves regulate ice flow from the Antarctic ice sheet towards the ocean and their evolution depends on spatiotemporal patterns of surface accumulation, basal melt, and ice dynamics. These processes shape the ice stratigraphy, which can be imaged by radar and digitized in the form of internal reflection horizons (IRHs). Here, we synthesized IRHs from three airborne and ground-based surveys covering three ice rises and shelves in coastal eastern Dronning Maud Land (East Antarctica).

Description: Ice shelves regulate ice flow from the Antarctic ice sheet towards the ocean and their evolution depends on spatiotemporal patterns of surface accumulation, basal melt, and ice dynamics. These processes shape the ice stratigraphy, which can be imaged by radar and digitized in the form of internal reflection horizons (IRHs). Here, we synthesized IRHs from three airborne and ground-based surveys covering three ice rises and shelves in coastal eastern Dronning Maud Land (East Antarctica).

Description: Ice shelves regulate ice flow from the Antarctic ice sheet towards the ocean and their evolution depends on spatiotemporal patterns of surface accumulation, basal melt, and ice dynamics. These processes shape the ice stratigraphy, which can be imaged by radar and digitized in the form of internal reflection horizons (IRHs). Here, we synthesized IRHs from three airborne and ground-based surveys covering three ice rises and shelves in coastal eastern Dronning Maud Land (East Antarctica).

Description: The internal stratigraphic structure of ice shelves forms by the interplay of ice dynamics, snow accumulation and basal melt. To infer accumulation and basal melt rates, we acquired a ground-penetrating radar profile (50 MHz; pulseEKKO (R) from Sensors & Software Inc.) along the central flowline of Ekström ice shelf, Droning Maud Land, East Antarctica. The data were collected in the two consecutive field seasons 2021/22 and 2022/23 with logistic support from Neumayer III station (Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, 2016). The profile starts about 5 km upstream of the grounding line and ends at a distance of 10 km to the ice shelf front, giving a total length of 129.3 km. Radar processing with ImpDAR (Lilien et al., 2020) encompassed trace averaging to equidistant spacing (10 m) and bandpass filtering (cut-off frequencies of 20 and 75 MHz). In addition, the REMA surface elevation (Howat et al., 2019) and the ice-ocean interface from BedMachine (Morlighem et al., 2017) were obtained along the profile line. The segments from both field seasons were connected without adjustments, because the vertical offset between IRHs is much smaller than the radar system's wavelength in ice (~3.4 m). The data shows the ice-ocean interface and continuous internal reflection horizons (IRHs) down to approximately 200 m depth. 4 IRHs were traced along the (nearly) entire length of the profile using a semi-automatic maximum tracking scheme (Koch et al., 2023).

Description: The internal stratigraphic structure of ice shelves forms by the interplay of ice dynamics, snow accumulation and basal melt. To infer accumulation and basal melt rates, we acquired a ground-penetrating radar profile (50 MHz; pulseEKKO (R) from Sensors & Software Inc.) along the central flowline of Ekström ice shelf, Droning Maud Land, East Antarctica. The data were collected in the two consecutive field seasons 2021/22 and 2022/23 with logistic support from Neumayer III station (Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, 2016). The profile starts about 5 km upstream of the grounding line and ends at a distance of 10 km to the ice shelf front, giving a total length of 129.3 km. Radar processing with ImpDAR (Lilien et al., 2020) encompassed trace averaging to equidistant spacing (10 m) and bandpass filtering (cut-off frequencies of 20 and 75 MHz). In addition, the REMA surface elevation (Howat et al., 2019) and the ice-ocean interface from BedMachine (Morlighem et al., 2017) were obtained along the profile line. The segments from both field seasons were connected without adjustments, because the vertical offset between IRHs is much smaller than the radar system's wavelength in ice (~3.4 m). The data shows the ice-ocean interface and continuous internal reflection horizons (IRHs) down to approximately 200 m depth. 4 IRHs were traced along the (nearly) entire length of the profile using a semi-automatic maximum tracking scheme (Koch et al., 2023).

Description: Using a novel mobile phase-sensitive radio echo sounder (pRES) system, radar profiling was conducted at Colle Gnifetti, Monte Rosa massif (Swiss–Italian Alps) in September 2021 to detect its deep englacial radiostratigraphy. The pRES (also denoted as autonomous pRES (ApRES) for stationary operations) is a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar operating at 200 to 400 MHz (Brennan et al., 2014). It provides phase-coherent radar data, which enables the application of Layer-optimized Synthetic Aperture Radar (LO-SAR) processing to improve the detectability of internal reflection horizons. We mobilized the pRES by placing its skeleton antennas in inflated tractor inner tubes and connecting them with a wooden frame. The antennas were separated by 2.7 m (center-to-center), elevated a few centimeters above the snow surface and their dipole axes were oriented perpendicular to the profiling direction. The data were acquired in stop-and-go mode with a median trace spacing of approximately 13 cm. Positioning was controlled by the Trimble® R9s GNSS system, operated in RTK mode. A profile with a total length of 285 m was acquired. It is split into two transects, a 166 m long transect across the glacier saddle that passes the drill location of the CG03 ice core (Sigl et al., 2018), and an intersecting 119 m long transect upstream towards south/the KCC ice core (Kerch et al., 2018).