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[Phys-l] Deep Ice Radar. (was polar grid navigation)



We meandered onto polar grid nav from discussions on drilling to the sub-ice lake which appears to stretch 125 km or more near the S Pole.

I found it interesting that the folks associated with BAS (British Antarctic Survey) apparently first identified these lake features by considering echoes from 60 MHz pulses which find a window through cold ice.
On particular traverses, it was noticed that a bright echo feature associated with the dielectric step from ice to water bearing rocks under the ice, became sensibly horizontal - for which the only reasonable explanation was a lake.
This observation later gave rise to intensive cooperative aircraft traverses including NSF representation, and still later, Russian drilled assays.

Brian W