Distribution of electrical parameters in upper layers of shelf, land, and fast ice near Novolazarevskaya station

The paper illustrates the results of an experimental investigation of electrical parameters of glacier ice and first-year fast ice in the VHF frequency band, at the Antarctic Station Novolazarevskaya in the 27th Soviet Antarctic Expedition (SAE) (1982-1983). Distributions of electrical parameters in the glaciers are obtained for ice, firn-ice, and cold-firn zones. These zones differ from each other in the physical characteristics of their upper layers in the glacier. The results of the measurements have shown the difference in distributions for these zones as well as the significant variability of the refractive index and the specific attenuation in the firn-ice and cold-firn zones. The electrical parameters of first-year fast ice were measured not long before its breaking, so that they became the characteristics of the ice cover, having overcome the period of radiative heating and freshening.