Title: The Ultra-Wideband Software Defined Radiometer (UWBRAD) for Ice Sheet Sensing: Instrument Status and Experiment Results
Presenting Author: Joel T. Johnson
Organization: The Ohio State University
Co-Author(s): K. C. Jezek, M. Durand, M. Andrews, C. Chen, D. Belgiovane, C. Yardim, H. Li, A. Bringer, Y. Duan, M. Aksoy, G. Macelloni, M. Brogioni, L. Tsang, S. Tan, T. Wang

Abstract:
The Ultra-Wideband Software-Defined Radiometer (UWBRAD) is being developed under the support of the NASA Instrument Incubator Program (IIP). The UWBRAD instrument will provide measurements of ice sheet thermal emission over the frequency range 0.5-2 GHz for the purpose of remotely sensing internal ice sheet temperature information. Physical temperature plays an important role in influencing stress-strain relationships in the ice sheet volume, and therefore impacts ice sheet dynamics including deformation and flow across the ice sheet base. No methods currently exist for remotely sensing ice sheet internal temperatures; the only measured information at present is obtained from a small number of deep ice core sites. Previous studies have shown the potential of multi-frequency brightness temperature measurements from 0.5-2 GHz to obtain deep ice sheet temperature information. These studies have investigated forward model predictions of brightness temperatures given assumed ice sheet internal temperatures, electromagnetic permittivity, and other physical parameters such as density and particle grain size. Accordingly, the UWBRAD instrument is being developed to provide brightness temperature observations over 0.5-2 GHz using multiple frequency channels and full-bandwidth sampling of each channel. The instrument began development in 2014. This presentation updates on progress in the last year, including a tower-based deployment in Antarctica, and plans for airborne observations in Greenland in September 2016.