Nasa Operation Icebridge MCoRDS Airborne Radar Data Evidence Of Post-Measuremen T WGS84 Ellipsoid Referencing And Geometric Corrections

Abstract

Airborne ice-penetrating radar systems such as the Multi-Channel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder (MCoRDS) flown during NASA Operation IceBridge collect raw slant-range echo profiles in real time. Official CReSIS processing documentation demonstrates that these raw measurements are generated under local planar or layered-media assumptions with no real-time curvature correction, no motion compensation in early products, and no WGS84 ellipsoid referencing. All major geometric transformations-including motion compensation for attitude and lever arm, SAR focusing via f-k migration, and full geolocation referenced to the WGS84 ellipsoid-are applied exclusively during post-flight L1B processing. This post-measurement integration of global reference frames has important implications for the interpretation of polar remote-sensing datasets and the geometric assumptions embedded in published ice-sheet models.