Brief Communication: Bed mapping of southern Greenland outlet glaciers using helicopter-borne ground penetrating radar (AIRETH)

Abstract. We present the first southern Greenland deployment of the redesigned Airborne Ice Radar of ETH Zurich (AIRETH). We surveyed 348 km of flight lines over three outlet glaciers and identified bed reflections along 102 km (29 %). The 25 MHz configuration achieved an effective penetration depth of about 300 m and a maximum inferred ice thickness of about 340 m, while bed detectability decreased over thicker and/or heavily crevassed ice. These results define the current depth limitation of our system and show that terrain-following helicopter surveys can provide targeted constraints that complement existing datasets in complex topography.