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NASA NTRS1994

Advanced technologies in the ASI MLRO towards a new generation laser ranging system

Matera Laser Ranging Observatory (MLRO) is a high performance, highly automated optical and astronomical observatory currently under design and development by AlliedSignal for the Italian Space Agency (ASI). It is projected to become operational at the Centro Geodesia Spaziale in Matera, Italy, in 1997. MLRO, based on a 1.5-meter astronomical quality telescope, will perform ranging to spacecraft in earthbound orbits, lunar reflectors, and specially equipped deep space missions. The primary emphasis during design is to incorporate state-of-the-art technologies to produce an intelligent, automated, high accuracy ranging system that will mimic the characteristic features of a fifth generation laser ranging system. The telescope has multiple ports and foci to support future experiments in the areas of laser communications, lidar, astrometry, etc. The key features providing state-of-the-art ranging performance include: a diode-pumped picosecond (50 ps) laser, high speed (3-5 GHz) optoelectronic detection and signal processing, and a high accuracy (6 ps) high resolution (less than 2 ps) time measurement capability. The above combination of technologies is expected to yield millimeter laser ranging precision and accuracy on targets up to 300,000 km, surpassing the best operational instrument performance to date by a factor of five or more. Distributed processing and control using a state-of-the-art computing environment provides the framework for efficient operation, system optimization, and diagnostics. A computationally intelligent environment permits optimal planning, scheduling, tracking, and data processing. It also supports remote access, monitor, and control for joint experiments with other observatories.

Varghese, Thomas↗

NASA NTRS1993

Gravity recovery analysis using GPS for STEP and a low-low satellite mission

Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers on low Earth orbiting satellites can provide three-dimensional global tracking with sub-decimeter orbit accuracy. The precise GPS data can additionally be used to refine the Earth's gravity field. Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle (STEP) is a proposed European Space Agency mission which will carry a flight GPS receiver. Using a realistic scenario for processing 5 days of GPS data, a covariance analysis is performed to obtain the expected improvement in the gravity field. Additionally, a similar analysis is then repeated for two low Earth orbiting satellites, each equipped with GPS receivers and with precise ranging measurements between them.

Muellerschroen, Ronald J.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Operation of a Radar Altimeter over the Greenland Ice Sheet

This thesis presents documentation for the Advanced Application Flight Experiment (AAFE) pulse compression radar altimeter and its role in the NASA Multisensor Airborne Altimetry Experiment over Greenland in 1993. The AAFE Altimeter is a Ku-band microwave radar which has demonstrated 14 centimeter range precision in operation over arctic ice. Recent repairs and improvements were required to make the Greenland missions possible. Transmitter, receiver and software modifications, as well as the integration of a GPS receiver are thoroughly documented. Procedures for installation, and operation of the radar are described. Finally, suggestions are made for further system improvements.

Grund, Matthew D.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Future Aerospace Technology in the Service of the Alliance: Sustained Hypersonic Flight - Volume 3

Sustained Hypersonic Flight capability is envisioned for several future military and civilian applications, such as long range immediate reaction reconnaissance, high speed interception of air targets, long range precision strike against hardened or time critical targets, and access to space. The inherent reduction in time-to-target and low vulnerability will permit new operational tactics. The symposium outlined mission needs and operational scenarios for hypersonic vehicles. Addressed were: Technological issues and challenges in external hypersonic aerodynamics and design, propulsion and engine/airframe integration, military ramjet applications, overall system design including structures and materials development needs, and test facilities. Ground based test facilities cannot provide full simulation at Mach numbers above 5. Therefore, the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics design tools is essential. For routine use of the computational tools in analysis, design and optimization, it is necessary to reduce the time for the entire computational process by two orders of magnitude. Hypersonic boundary layer transition remains a critical design issue because of the important impact on engine drag and on heating, which can affect the choice of materials and thermal protection systems. In addition, reliable prediction of scramjet net thrust is an absolute must in resolving hypersonic air breathing vehicle design issues. Due to current facility and computational shortfalls, the development of future hypersonic flight systems requires research flight tests in the technology areas of boundary layer transition and air-breathing propulsion engine performance. For sustained hypersonic flight beyond Mach 6, the supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) engine is the only choice for the near future. Only this air-breathing concept offers a significant promise of large reductions in required propellant fractions, increased payload fractions, and reduced size vehicles, together with a foreseeable technological feasibility. Airframe/engine integration, combustor design and thermal management are the predominant engineering tasks. Fuels, hydrogen or hydrocarbon, must be matched to the operational needs of military or civil use. Experience in existing ramjet propelled missiles capable of speeds up to Mach 4 can support the development effort. The potential mission and cost benefits of sustained hypersonic flight to both military and civil applications are tremendous. From the budget point of view, the possibility of sharing development costs between military and civil programs offers a specific advantage.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1998

SLR2000: a microlaser-based single photoelectron satellite laser ranging system

SLR2000 is an autonomous and eyesafe satellite laser ranging (SLR) station with an expected single shot range precision of about one centimeter and a normal point (time-averaged) precision better than 3 mm. The system wil provide continuous 24 hour tracking coverage for a constellation of over twenty artificial satellites. Replication costs are expected to be roughly an order of magnitude less than current operational systems, and the system will be about 75% less expensive to operate and maintain relative to manned systems. Computer simulations have predicted a daylight tracking capability to GPS and lower satellites with telescope apertures of 40 cm and have demonstrated the ability of our current autotracking algorithm to extract mean signal strengths below .001 photoelectrons per pulse from daytime background noise. The dominant cost driver in present SLR systems is the onsite and central infrastructure manpower required to operate the system, to service and maintain the complex subsystems, and to ensure that the transmitted laser beam is not a hazard to onsite personnel or to overflying aircraft. To keep development, fabrication, and maintenance costs at a minimum, we adopted the following design philosophies: (1) use off the shelf commercial components wherever possible; this allows rapid component replacement and "outsourcing" of engineering support; (2) use smaller telescopes (less than 50 cm) since this constrains the cost, size, and weight of the telescope and tracking mount; and (3) for low maintenance and failsafe reliability, choose simple versus complex technical approaches and, where possible, use passive techniques and components rather than active ones. Adherence to these philosophies has led to the SLR2000 design described here.

Degnan, John J.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Photon-Counting Multikilohertz Microlaser Altimeters for Airborne and Spaceborne Topographic Measurements

We consider the optimum design of photon-counting microlaser altimeters operating from airborne and spaceborne platforms under both day and night conditions. Extremely compact Q-switched microlaser transmitters produce trains of low energy pulses at multi-kHz rates and can easily generate subnanosecond pulse-widths for precise ranging. To guide the design, we have modeled the solar noise background and developed simple algorithms, based on Post-Detection Poisson Filtering (PDPF), to optimally extract the weak altimeter signal from a high noise background during daytime operations. Practical technology issues, such as detector and/or receiver dead times, have also been considered in the analysis. We describe an airborne prototype, being developed under NASA's instrument Incubator Program, which is designed to operate at a 10 kHz rate from aircraft cruise altitudes up to 12 km with laser pulse energies on the order of a few microjoules. We also analyze a compact and power efficient system designed to operate from Mars orbit at an altitude of 300 km and sample the Martian surface at rates up to 4.3 kHz using a 1 watt laser transmitter and an 18 cm telescope. This yields a Power-Aperture Product of 0.24 W-square meter, corresponding to a value almost 4 times smaller than the Mars Orbiting Laser Altimeter (0. 88W-square meter), yet the sampling rate is roughly 400 times greater (4 kHz vs 10 Hz) Relative to conventional high power laser altimeters, advantages of photon-counting laser altimeters include: (1) a more efficient use of available laser photons providing up to two orders of magnitude greater surface sampling rates for a given laser power-telescope aperture product; (2) a simultaneous two order of magnitude reduction in the volume, cost and weight of the telescope system; (3) the unique ability to spatially resolve the source of the surface return in a photon counting mode through the use of pixellated or imaging detectors; and (4) improved vertical and transverse spatial resolution resulting from both (1) and (3). Furthermore, because of significantly lower laser pulse energies, the microaltimeter is inherently more eyesafe to observers on the ground and less prone to internal optical damage, which can terminate a space mission prematurely.

Degnan, John J.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Sea Surface Slope Statistics for Intermediate and Shore Scale Ocean Waves Measured Using a Low-Altitude Aircraft

Ocean surface remote sensing techniques often rely on scattering or emission linked to shorter- scale gravity-capillary ocean wavelets. However, it is increasingly apparent that slightly longer wavelengths of O(10 to 500 cm) are vital components in the robust sea surface description needed to link varied global remote sensing data sets. This paper describes a sensor suite developed to examine sea surface slope variations in the field using an aircraft flying at very low altitude (below 30 m) and will also provide preliminary measurements detailing changes in slope characteristics versus sea state and friction velocity. Two-dimensional surface slope is measured using simultaneous range measurements from three compact short-range laser altimeters mounted in an equilateral triangle arrangement with spacing of about 1 m. In addition, all three lasers provide independent wave elevation profiles after GPS-aided correction for aircraft altitude. Laser range precision is 1 cm rms while vertical motion correction is 15 cm rms. The measurements are made along-track at approximately 1 m intervals setting the spatial scale of the measurement to cover waves of intermediate to long scale. Products available for this array then include surface elevation, two-dimensional slope distribution, and the cross- and along-track 1-D slope distributions. To complement the laser, a down-looking mm-wave radar scatterometer is centered within the laser array to measure radar backscatter simultaneously with the laser slope. The radar's footprint is nominally 1 m in diameter. Near-vertical radar backscatter is inversely proportional to the small-scale surface slope variance and to the tilt of the underlying (laser-measured) surface facet. Together the laser and radar data provide information on wave roughness from the longest scales down to about 1 cm. These measurements are complemented by aircraft turbulence probe data that provides robust surface flux information.

Vandemack, Douglas↗

NASA NTRS1999

Implications of MOLA Global Roughness, Statistics, and Topography

New insights are emerging as the ongoing high-quality measurements of the Martian surface topography by Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on board the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft increase in coverage, resolution, and diversity. For the first time, a global characterization of the statistical properties of topography is possible. The data were collected during the aerobreaking hiatus, science phasing, and mapping orbits of MGS, and have a resolution of 300-400 m along track, a range resolution of 37.5 cm, a range precision of 1-10 m for surface slopes up to 30 deg., and an absolute accuracy of topography of 13 m. The spacecraft's orbit inclination dictates that nadir observations have latitude coverage of about 87.1S to 87.1N; the addition of observations obtained during a period of off-nadir pointing over the north pole extended coverage to 90N. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Aharonson, O.↗

NASA NTRS2003

An Evaluation of Recent Gravity Models wrt. Altimeter Satellite Missions

With the launch of CHAMP and GRACE, we have entered a new phase in the history of satellite geodesy. For the first time, geopotential models are now available based almost exclusively on satellite-satellite tracking either with GPS in the case of the CHAMP-based geopotential models, or co-orbital intersatellite ultra-precise ranging in the case of GRACE. Different groups have analyzed these data, and produced a series of geopotential models (e.g., EIGENlS, EIGEN2, GGM0lS, GGMOlC) that incorporate the new data. We will compare the performance of these "newer" geopotential models with the standard models now used for computations, (e.g., JGM-3, BGM-96, PGS7727, and GRIMS-C1) for TOPEX, JASON, Geosat-Follow-On (GFO), and Envisat using standard metrics such as SLR RMS of fit, altimeter crossovers, and orbit overlaps. Where covariances are available we can evaluate the predicted geographically correlated orbit error. These predicted results can be compared with the Earth-fixed differences between dynamic and reduced-dynamic orbits to test the predictive accuracy of the covariances, as well as to calibrate the error of the solutions.

Lemoine, Frank G.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Using Piezoelectric Ceramics for Dust Mitigation of Space Suits

The particles that make up moon dust and Mars soil can be hazardous to an astronaut s health if not handled properly. In the near future, while exploring outer space, astronauts plan to wander the surfaces of unknown planets. During these explorations, dust and soil will cling to their space suits and become imbedded in the fabric. The astronauts will track moon dust and mars soil back into their living quarters. This not only will create a mess with millions of tiny air-born particles floating around, but will also be dangerous in the case that the fine particles are breathed in and become trapped in an astronaut s lungs. research center are investigating ways to remove these particles from space suits. This problem is very difficult due to the nature of the particles: They are extremely small and have jagged edges which can easily latch onto the fibers of the fabric. For the past summer, I have been involved in researching the potential problems, investigating ways to remove the particles, and conducting experiments to validate the techniques. The current technique under investigation uses piezoelectric ceramics imbedded in the fabric that vibrate and shake the particles free. The particles will be left on the planet s surface or collected a vacuum to be disposed of later. The ceramics vibrate when connected to an AC voltage supply and create a small scale motion similar to what people use at the beach to shake sand off of a beach towel. Because the particles are so small, similar to volcanic ash, caution must be taken to make sure that this technique does not further inbed them in the fabric and make removal more difficult. Only a very precise range of frequency and voltage will produce a suitable vibration. My summer project involved many experiments to determine the correct range. Analysis involved hands on experience with oscilloscopes, amplifiers, piezoelectrics, a high speed camera, microscopes and computers. perfect this technology. Someday, vibration to remove dust may a vital component to the space exploration program. In order to mitigate this problem, engineers and scientists at the NASA-Glenn Further research and experiments are planned to better understand and ultimately

Angel, Heather K.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Development of a Coherent Lidar for Aiding Precision Soft Landing on Planetary Bodies

Coherent lidar can play a critical role in future planetary exploration missions by providing key guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) data necessary for navigating planetary landers to the pre-selected site and achieving autonomous safe soft-landing. Although the landing accuracy has steadily improved over time to approximately 35 km for the recent Mars Exploration Rovers due to better approach navigation, a drastically different guidance, navigation and control concept is required to meet future mission requirements. For example, future rovers will require better than 6 km landing accuracy for Mars and better than 1 km for the Moon plus maneuvering capability to avoid hazardous terrain features. For this purpose, an all-fiber coherent lidar is being developed to address the call for advancement of entry, descent, and landing technologies. This lidar will be capable of providing precision range to the ground and approach velocity data, and in the case of landing on Mars, it will also measure the atmospheric wind and density. The lidar obtains high resolution range information from a frequency modulated-continuous wave (FM-CW) laser beam whose instantaneous frequency varies linearly with time, and the ground vector velocity is directly extracted from the Doppler frequency shift. Utilizing the high concentration of aerosols in the Mars atmosphere (approx. two order of magnitude higher than the Earth), the lidar can measure wind velocity with a few watts of optical power. Operating in 1.57 micron wavelength regime, the lidar can use the differential absorption (DIAL) technique to measure the average CO2 concentration along the laser beam using, that is directly proportional to the Martian atmospheric density. Employing fiber optics components allows for the lidar multi-functional operation while facilitating a highly efficient, compact and reliable design suitable for integration into a spacecraft with limited mass, size, and power resources.

Amzajerdian, Farzin↗

NASA NTRS1995

Coronal Structures Observed by Radio Propagation Measurements

This paper summarizes (1) advances in our knowledge of coronal structures inferred from radio propagation measurements, and (2) gains in our understanding of the relationship between radio propagation and white-light coronagraph measurements. Radio propagation measurements confirm that streamers are ray-like structures as depicted in coronagraph pictures, but also reveal a hierarchy of filamentary structures throughout the corona, extending from the size of streamers down to scale sizes as small as about 1 km at the Sun (10(ghe) arcsec). Doppler scintillation measurements, therefore, open a new window on small-scale structure that has long eluded coronagraph measurements. In addition, high precision ranging measurements make it possible to investigate large-scale structures not yet observed in corona graphs, such as plumes in equatorial coronal regions.

Sun↗

NASA NTRS2006

Laser Vibrometry Helps to Validate Gossamer Space Structures

NASA is pursuing the development of large ultra-lightweight structures, commonly referred to as gossamer space structures. These structures have large areas and small areal densities, which complicates ground testing significantly as the ground operations interfaces and gravity loading can become cumbersome. Laser vibrometry has proven to be a critical sensing technology for validating the structural characteristics of these gossamer structures, due to its precision, range, and non-contacting nature.

Gaspar, James L.↗

NASA NTRS2011

First Assessments of ICESat-2 Performance Using Aircraft Data

The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) Is a next-generation laser altimeter designed to continue key observations of ice sheet elevation change, sea ice freeboard, vegetation canopy height, earth surface elevation, and sea surface height. Scheduled for launch in early 2016, ICESat-2 will use a high repetition rate (approximately 10 kHz), small footprint (10m diameter) laser, and a single-photon-sensitive detection strategy (photon counting) to measure precise ranges to the earth's surface. Operating in the green (approximately 532nm), the six beams of ICESat-2 will provide improved spatial coverage compared with ICESat while the differences in transmit energy among the beams provide a large dynamic range. In order to evaluate models of predicted ICESat-2 performance, and provide ICESat-2-like data for algorithm development an airborne ICESat-2 simulator was developed and first flown in 2010, this simulator, the Multiple Altimeter Beam Experimental Lidar (MABEL) has now had three deployments in the western US, and will be deployed to the polar regions in spring of 2012. MABEL uses a similar measurement strategy to what will be used on ICESat-2. MABEL collects more spatially-dense data than ICESat-2 (approximately 2-cm along track) with a smaller 2m diameter footprint in 16 green channels and an additional 8 channels in the infrared. The comparison between frequencies allows for analysis of possible penetration of green energy into water or snow. We present MABEL data collected over deserts, forests, ocean water, lakes. snow covered mountains, and saft flats, provide examples of how these data are being used to develop algorithms that derive geophysical products from ICESat 2 and assess expected performances.

Neumann, Tom↗

NASA NTRS2012

First Assessments of Predicted ICESat-2 Performance Using Aircraft Data

The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) is a next-generation laser altimeter designed to continue key observations of ice sheet elevation change, sea ice freeboard, vegetation canopy height, earth surface elevation, and sea surface height. Scheduled for launch in mid-2016, ICESat-2 will use a high repetition rate (10 kHz), small footprint (10 m nominal ground diameter) laser, and a single-photon-sensitive detection strategy (photon counting) to measure precise range to the earth's surface. Using green light (532 nm), the six beams of ICESat-2 will provide improved spatial coverage compared with the single beam of ICESat, while the differences in transmit energy among the beams provide a large dynamic range. The six beams are arranged into three pairs of beams which allow slopes to measured on an orbit-by-orbit basis. In order to evaluate models of predicted ICESat-2 performance and provide ICESat-2-like data for algorithm development, an airborne ICESat-2 simulator was developed and first flown in 2010. This simulator, the Multiple Altimeter Beam Experimental Lidar (MABEL) was most recently deployed to Iceland in April 2012 and collected approx 85 hours of science data over land ice, sea ice, and calibration targets. MABEL uses a similar photon-counting measurement strategy to what will be used on ICESat-2. MABEL collects data in 16 green channels and an additional 8 channels in the infrared aligned across the direction of flight. By using NASA's ER-2 aircraft flying at 20km altitude, MABEL flies as close to space as is practical, and collects data through approx 95% of the atmosphere. We present background on the MABEL instrument, and data from the April 2012 deployment to Iceland. Among the 13 MABEL flights, we collected data over the Greenland ice sheet interior and outlet glaciers in the southwest and western Greenland, sea ice data over the Nares Strait and Greenland Sea, and a number of small glaciers and ice caps in Iceland and Svalbard. Several of the flights were coincident in time and space with NASA's Operation IceBridge, which provides an independent data set for validation. MABEL also collected data along CryoSat track 10482 in north central Greenland approximately one month after CryoSat passed overhead.

Neumann, Thomas↗

NASA NTRS2014

A Comparison of Potential IM-CW Lidar Modulation Techniques for ASCENDS CO2 Column Measurements From Space

Global atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements through the Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) Decadal Survey recommended space mission are critical for improving our understanding of CO2 sources and sinks. IM-CW (Intensity Modulated Continuous Wave) lidar techniques are investigated as a means of facilitating CO2 measurements from space to meet the ASCENDS science requirements. In previous laboratory and flight experiments we have successfully used linear swept frequency modulation to discriminate surface lidar returns from intermediate aerosol and cloud contamination. Furthermore, high accuracy and precision ranging to the surface as well as to the top of intermediate clouds, which is a requirement for the inversion of the CO2 column-mixing ratio from the instrument optical depth measurements, has been demonstrated with the linear swept frequency modulation technique. We are concurrently investigating advanced techniques to help improve the auto-correlation properties of the transmitted waveform implemented through physical hardware to make cloud rejection more robust in special restricted scenarios. Several different carrier based modulation techniques are compared including orthogonal linear swept, orthogonal non-linear swept, and Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK). Techniques are investigated that reduce or eliminate sidelobes. These techniques have excellent auto-correlation properties while possessing a finite bandwidth (by way of a new cyclic digital filter), which will reduce bias error in the presence of multiple scatterers. Our analyses show that the studied modulation techniques can increase the accuracy of CO2 column measurements from space. A comparison of various properties such as signal to noise ratio (SNR) and time-bandwidth product are discussed.

Campbell, Joel F.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Structural Dynamics of Tropical Moist Forest Gaps

Gap phase dynamics are the dominant mode of forest turnover in tropical forests. However, gap processes are infrequently studied at the landscape scale. Airborne lidar data offer detailed information on three-dimensional forest structure, providing a means to characterize fine-scale (1 m) processes in tropical forests over large areas. Lidar-based estimates of forest structure (top down) differ from traditional field measurements (bottom up), and necessitate clear-cut definitions unencumbered by the wisdom of a field observer. We offer a new definition of a forest gap that is driven by forest dynamics and consistent with precise ranging measurements from airborne lidar data and tall, multi-layered tropical forest structure. We used 1000 ha of multi-temporal lidar data (2008, 2012) at two sites, the Tapajos National Forest and Ducke Reserve, to study gap dynamics in the Brazilian Amazon. Here, we identified dynamic gaps as contiguous areas of significant growth, that correspond to areas greater than 10 sq m, with height less than 10 m. Applying the dynamic definition at both sites, we found over twice as much area in gap at Tapajos National Forest (4.8%) as compared to Ducke Reserve (2.0%). On average, gaps were smaller at Ducke Reserve and closed slightly more rapidly, with estimated height gains of 1.2 m y-1 versus 1.1 m y-1 at Tapajos. At the Tapajos site, height growth in gap centers was greater than the average height gain in gaps (1.3 m y-1 versus 1.1 m y-1). Rates of height growth between lidar acquisitions reflect the interplay between gap edge mortality, horizontal ingrowth and gap size at the two sites. We estimated that approximately 10% of gap area closed via horizontal ingrowth at Ducke Reserve as opposed to 6% at Tapajos National Forest. Height loss (interpreted as repeat damage and/or mortality) and horizontal ingrowth accounted for similar proportions of gap area at Ducke Reserve (13% and 10%, respectively). At Tapajos, height loss had a much stronger signal (23% versus 6%) within gaps. Both sites demonstrate limited gap contagiousness defined by an increase in the likelihood of mortality in the immediate vicinity ((is) approximately 6 m) of existing gaps.

Structural Dynamics of Tropical Moist Forest Gaps↗

NASA NTRS2016

Deep Radiostratigraphy of the East Antarctic Plateau: Connecting the Dome C and Vostok Ice Core Sites

Several airborne radar-sounding surveys are used to trace internal reflections around the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C and Vostok ice core sites. Thirteen reflections, spanning the last two glacial cycles, are traced within 200 km of Dome C, a promising region for million-year-old ice, using the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics High-Capacity Radar Sounder. This provides a dated stratigraphy to 2318 m depth at Dome C. Reflection age uncertainties are calculated from the radar range precision and signal-to-noise ratio of the internal reflections. The radar stratigraphy matches well with the Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder (MCoRDS) radar stratigraphy obtained independently. We show that radar sounding enables the extension of ice core ages through the ice sheet with an additional radar-related age uncertainty of approximately 1/3-1/2 that of the ice cores. Reflections are extended along the Byrd-Totten Glacier divide, using University of Texas/Technical University of Denmark and MCoRDS surveys. However, core-to-core connection is impeded by pervasive aeolian terranes, and Lake Vostok's influence on reflection geometry. Poor radar connection of the two ice cores is attributed to these effects and suboptimal survey design in affected areas. We demonstrate that, while ice sheet internal radar reflections are generally isochronal and can be mapped over large distances, careful survey planning is necessary to extend ice core chronologies to distant regions of the East Antarctic ice sheet.

airborne electromagnetic soundings↗