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This paper presents the ice thickness, fine resolution internal reflecting horizons (IRHs), and distinct bottom topography measurements of Chinese Kunlun Station and Grove Mountains, Antarctica, derived from sounding these glaciers with a high-resolution radar. To enable the development of next-generation ice-sheet models, we need information on IRHs, bottom topography, and basal conditions. To this end, we performed measurements with the progressively improved ice-sounding radar system, currently known as the high-resolution ice-sounding radar developed by the Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Radiation and Sensing Technology of Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. We processed the collected data using focused synthetic aperture radar (SAR) algorithm named the modified range migration algorithm using curvelets and the modified nonlinear chirp scaling algorithm to improve radar sensitivity and reduce along-track surface clutter. Representative results from selected transects indicate that we successfully sounded 3-km-thick ice with a fine resolution of 0.75 m. In this paper, we provide a brief description of the radar system, discuss the focused SAR processing algorithms, and provide sample results to demonstrate the successful sounding of the ice sheet in Antarctica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop and then demonstrate a modified planar subarray processing algorithm based on the inverse scaled Fourier transform applied to very high frequency ice-sounding data that produces swath measurements of ice sheet surface topography, ice thickness, and radar reflectivity of both internal reflecting horizons and bedrock of the ice sheet. It is a real-time ice-sounding imaging method. First, theory analysis has been carried on the proposed algorithm. Then, we give the particular realizing steps to implement this algorithm. Finally, we apply this algorithm to the simulation point targets and real data collected during the 29th Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition to prove its validity of imaging of ice sheets. Furthermore, compared with two previous algorithms in two major aspects—the power of azimuth clutter reduction and calculating time—the proposed algorithm could considerably reduce the imaging time to meet the requirement of real-time imaging of ice-sounding data without degrading the ability of azimuth clutter reduction via C+MPI language on a parallel computer system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]