Velocity of radio-wave propagation in ice at Vostok station, Antarctica

During the austral summer field season of the Russian Antarctic Expedition in 1999/2000, wide-angle reflections experiments were performed in the vicinity of the Russian station Vostok. A 60 MHz ice radar system with 12-bit digital recording was used. The measurements were taken along two perpendicular lines directed south–north and east–west with a distance of 200 m between marks. We used a one-layer model (without snow–firn zone influence) for the calculations. We calculate that the average velocity of radio-wave propagation in the ice sheet is168.4 ± 0.5 m μs−1.The same velocity was derived from hyperbolic diffractions from internal discontinuities. The results allow more accurate depth interpretation of radio-echo soundings.