Articles | Volume 20, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2485-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2485-2026
Review article
 | Highlight paper
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27 Apr 2026
Review article | Highlight paper |  | 27 Apr 2026

Review article: 30 years of airborne radar surveys on the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets by the Alfred Wegener Institute

Steven Franke, Daniel Steinhage, Veit Helm, Tobias Binder, Uwe Nixdorf, Heinrich Miller, Angelika Humbert, Daniela Jansen, Graeme Eagles, Hannes Eisermann, Wilfried Jokat, Antonia Ruppel, Reinhard Drews, Alexandra Zuhr, Amelie Driemel, Andreas Walter, Peter Konopatzky, Robin Heß, Antonie Haas, Roland Koppe, Pascal H. Andreas, and Olaf Eisen

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Cited articles

Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung: Neumayer III and Kohnen Station in Antarctica operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Journal of Large-Scale Research Facilities JLSRF, 2, 85, https://doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-2-152, 2016a. a
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung: Polar aircraft Polar5 and Polar6 operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Journal of Large-Scale Research Facilities JLSRF, 2, 87, https://doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-2-153, 2016b. a, b
Anschütz, H., Eisen, O., Rack, W., and Scheinert, M.: Periodic surface features in coastal East Antarctica, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006gl027871, 2006. a
Anschütz, H., Steinhage, D., Eisen, O., Oerter, H., Horwath, M., and Ruth, U.: Small-scale spatio-temporal characteristics of accumulation rates in western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, J. Glaciol., 54, 315–323, https://doi.org/10.3189/002214308784886243, 2008. a
Arenas-Pingarrón, Á., Corr, H. F. J., Robinson, C., Jordan, T. A., and Brennan, P. V.: Polarimetric airborne scientific instrument, mark 2, an ice-sounding airborne synthetic aperture radar for subglacial 3D imagery, IET Radar Sonar Nav., 17, 1391–1404, https://doi.org/10.1049/rsn2.12428, 2023. a
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Editorial statement
This review of airborne radar datasets describes a critical source of information used for many impactful studies of changing ice sheets in both polar regions.
Short summary
This review synthesizes 30 years of Alfred Wegener Institute’s (AWI) airborne radar research in Antarctica and Greenland, detailing six radar systems and their applications in studying ice dynamics, basal properties, and subglacial landscapes. Moreover, it introduces the public release of AWI's airborne radar datasets via the Radar Data over Polar Ice Sheets Viewer and PANGAEA, ensuring findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable access for future polar research.
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