Radio Echo Sounding on Four Ice Caps in Arctic Canada

Abstract

An SCR 718 radar altimeter, mounted on a sledge towed by a motor toboggan, was used to measure ice thickness on parts of the Devon Island Ice Cap, the ice cap on northwestern Ellesmere Island, the Meighen Ice Cap, and the southernmost of the four ice caps on western Melville Island. No echoes were received where the ice thickness exceeded about 800 m. Techniques are described and results presented as bedrock contour maps. On Meighen Ice Cap results of soundings with two radars of different frequencies did not differ significantly but showed some discrepancies from the results of a gravity survey.