Using satellite-mounted and airborne radar systems, scientists can peer into the depths of glaciers and catch a glimpse of climate conditions in the ancient past. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin drew from decades of data to develop a 3-D layered map of Greenland\u2019s ice sheet, improving the scientific community\u2019s understanding of age structure within the ice. <\/p>\n
While coring and radar sounding campaigns have provided plenty of insight into Arctic and Antarctic ice over many decades, NASA\u2019s Operation IceBridge \u2014 which began in 2009 \u2014 provided a new, rapidly expanding dataset that made the 3-D map a possibility. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe realized there was an opportunity to really dive into these data and make a comprehensive map of the layering of the ice sheet,\u201d said Joe MacGregor, a glaciologist in UT at Austin\u2019s Institute for Geophysics. \u201cWe knew that would be a challenging process, but also a very rewarding one.\u201d <\/p>\n
MacGregor led the development of the project\u2019s proposal as a post-doctoral researcher, and became the science and management lead on the project, which continues today. He and his team selected Greenland as the subject of the map and study for its extensive, homogeneous dataset. <\/p>\n
The many layers in Greenland\u2019s ice sheet, MacGregor explained, record \u201cdiscreet, short-lived climate events\u201d by integrating changes to the internal and external electrical properties of the ice from those events. Over millennia, snowfall buries and distorts those layers, rendering their climatological fingerprints unreadable without high-resolution radar. <\/p>\n