The Land Beneath the Ice: The Pioneering Years of Radar Exploration in Antarctica

"As soon as humans spied and later set foot on the remote Antarctic continent in the early nineteenth century, they became aware of its ice cover, and desired to learn about its extent, shape, thickness, and behavior. In this book, David Drewry-glaciologist and former Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute-recounts the science and history of a ground-breaking time in recent Antarctic geophysical exploration, in which scientists were finally able to "see" through the Antarctic ice sheet and take its measure. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, scientists' ability to peer beneath the Antarctic ice sheet and map its thickness was revolutionized by the technology, techniques, and exploratory campaigns of the Radio Echo Sounding Programme, conducted by the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge in the UK. The exploratory radar mapping campaigns of this ambitious research program were largely accomplished during the Cold War, as interest and concern in global climate change were just emerging. To those involved in this research and fieldwork, it was evident that the environment of the planet was indeed changing, and that the great ice masses of Antarctica and Greenland, and their evolving stability and behavior, would feature significantly in understanding the future of our world.