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By Bisola Falola.

Abstract:
The UTIG airborne ice penetrating radar data set for East Antarctica can be used to trace isochrones over the Lake Vostok area. The internal layers of the radar data set result from impedance contrasts along these isochrones. Tracing the internal layers provides vital information about the region, so a consistent and repeatable picking method is crucial. The picking criterion must take into account the effects of layer splitting and fuzziness of data from noise, which are pronounced in the areas of rapidly changing ice thickness during the interface from the lake to the mountains. I decided that continuity was the most important criterion for picking the reflective internal layers and used Geoquest, a program primarily used for seismic data, to trace four bright layers over the Lake Vostok area. From these traces the vertical strain is calculated and then used to interpret the melt rate; the primary input to estimating Lake Vostok’s regional subglacial hydrologic system.