Influences of gas bubble and ice density on ice thickness measurement by GPR
Li Zhi-Jun1, Jia Qing1, Zhang Bao-Sen2, Leppäranta Matti3, Lu Peng1, and Huang Wen-Feng1
1. State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024.
2. Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research, Zhengzhou, 450003.
3. Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki FIN-00014, Finland.
Abstract Lake ice thickness changes with regional hydrometeorology and is closely associated with global climate change. We tested the detection of ice thickness using ground penetrating radar (GPR) in the Hongqipao reservoir. Ice crystals, gas bub bles, ice density and ice thickness were also determined by concurrently drilling for validation. During the tests the gas bubble content was high in the upper and low in the bottom, ice density varied with the bubble content, and the ice thickness was not homogeneous. By comparisons between radar detected and in-situ measured ice thicknesses with theoretical analyses of the influence of gas bubble content on the dielectric constant, a three-layer model with snow, granular ice, and columnar ice was established and the transmission speed of radar wave within the ice was determined. Experience reveals that the equivalent dielectric constant can be used to evaluate the wave speed and the values at 1/3 ice cover depth can be used as equivalent values. Besides, the difference between the theoretical transmission time and the real detection time induced by large gas bubbles increases nonlinearly with the theoretical transmission time or ice thickness.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No 50879008, 40930848) and the Open Fund of State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering (Grant No SKLFSE200904).
Cite this article:
LI Zhi-Jun,JIA Qing,ZHANG Bao-Sen et al. Influences of gas bubble and ice density on ice thickness measurement by GPR[J]. APPLIED GEOPHYSICS, 2010, 7(2): 105-113.
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