Earth Matters: Radar Glaciology: A Window into Ice

One of the largest sources of uncertainty in understanding climate change and planning for future sea level rise is estimating the impacts of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheet melts. One of the great open questions about our place in the universe is whether life exists elsewhere in the solar system. Whether we’re responding to the challenges of an evolving climate or exploring Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, humanity’s ability to understand and respond to the natural world can be limited by our ability to observe conditions beneath kilometers of ice. Radio echo sounding is a uniquely powerful geophysical technique for studying the interior of ice sheets, glaciers, and icy planets. In this talk, Dustin Schroeder will discuss how his team is addressing this challenge by advancing ice-penetrating radar system design and data analysis for terrestrial and planetary glaciology. This research is filling a fundamental gap in our ability to understand the evolution, stability, and sea level contribution of ice sheets in a changing climate as well as the habitability of ocean worlds.