Progress and Prospect of Ice Radar in Investigating and Researching Antarctic Ice Sheet

The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest continental ice on the earth and its mass budget and stability has an important influence on global climate change and sea level rise.Ice radar,or radio-echo sounding(RES),constitutes the principal means by which glaciologists investigate the subsurface properties of the Antarctic ice sheet.In the past fifty years,ice radar has been widely applied to measure ice sheet thickness,internal structure and subglacial morphology.These parameters are fundamental for the calculation of ice volume and mass balance as well as the reconstruction of past snow accumulation and melting rates,ice dynamics and deposition process.Now,RES has covered most regions in Antarctica and provided significant understanding of the interactions between ice sheet and global system.We briefly introduced ice radar and its technical development firstly and then mainly reviewed the progress of ice radar in investigating and researching Antarctic ice sheet thickness and subglacial topography,internal reflecting horizons,subglacial lakes and water systems,subglacial bedrock roughness and crystal orientation fabrics(COF).Finally,the prospect of ice radar in investigating and researching Antarctic ice sheet in the future and our present situation was proposed.