Echogram, West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets

Exhibition Label:
"Climate Change at the Poles," Jan-2009, Kate Meyer, Jennifer Talbott, and Angela Watts
This echogram represents a cross-sectional image of a portion of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet and is created from data collected by ground-based ice penetrating radar and generated by data processing software. The different colors indicate relative signal intensity change sensed by radar through the ice layers. While other ground-based radars have not been able to record detailed data below 2,000 meters (1.2 miles), CReSIS radars are able to sense internal layering past this depth almost all the way to the ice-bed interface (shown here at about 3,500 meters, or 2.1 miles).