Design and Operation of a Portable, Digital Impulse Radar

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Abstract
We have constructed a back-portable, impulse radar instrument that weighs roughly 12 kg, can be powered by dry cells, and records and stores data digitally. The radar is controlled by an on-board, purpose-built microcomputer that ensures simple field operation, facilitates modifications, and allows unattended operation when investigating time-varying targets. The transmitting unit is triggered from the receiver via an optical link and generates an electromagnetic wavelet by discharging two high-voltage capacitors through back-to-back silicon-controlled rectifiers into a resistively loaded dipole antenna. Successful field operations carried out during the summers of 1986 and 1987 include depth profiling, as well as studies of englacial and subglacial targets, on several temperate and sub-polar glaciers.