Estimation of Crystal Orientation Fabric from Airborne Polarimetric Ice Sounding Radar Data

Information on ice sheet crystal orientation fabrics (COF) is valuable, as it tells about past deformation and current flow properties, which can potentially improve ice flow modelling. Due to the birefringence of ice sheets, ice sounding radars can provide the desired COF information if multiple polarizations are employed. Until now such data have mostly been acquired with ground-based single-polarization radars by rotating the antenna between multiple data takes. In this paper, a novel method based on polarimetric radar data, polarization synthesis, and complex coherence is proposed and tested with data from an airborne, polarimetric ice sounding radar. The results are consistent with ice core analyses, ice sheet physics, and existing radar results.