Raw radar echo strength over ice (IceBridge HiCARS 1)

In plain English

What it measures. Holds raw radar echo-strength readings collected over Antarctic ice, showing how strongly radar signals bounced back from the ice and the ground beneath it.

How it's made. An early-stage product from the HiCARS radar sounder flown on research aircraft during the ICECAP project, with NASA Operation IceBridge support.

How & where you'd use it. A low-level input for studying ice thickness and what lies under the ice sheet, typically used by specialists rather than directly.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › SENSOR CHARACTERISTICS › PHASE AND AMPLITUDESPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR › RETURN POWER

Coverage & cadence

Time span2009-01-02 → 2010-12-29
Measured byBT-67 (HiCARS1) · DHC-6 (HiCARS1)
Processing levelLevel 1B
Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, -53
FormatsnetCDF-3, PDF
StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time

Official description

This data set contains Antarctica radar sounder echo strength profiles from the Hi-Capability Radar Sounder (HiCARS) Version 1 instrument. The data were collected by scientists working on the Investigating the Cryospheric Evolution of the Central Antarctic Plate (ICECAP) project, which was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) with additional support from NASA Operation IceBridge.

Get the data

ir1hi1b_access.py

import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="IR1HI1B",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD

Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.

What's measured

Coverage & cadence

What you can do with it

Get the data

Official links