It employs a geophysical method similar to ground-penetrating radar and typically operates at frequencies in the MF, HF, VHF and UHF portions of the radio spectrum.
[1][2][3][4] This technique is also commonly referred to as "Ice Penetrating Radar (IPR)" or "Radio Echo Sounding (RES)".
Glaciers are particularly well suited to investigation by radar because the conductivity, imaginary part of the permittivity, and the dielectric absorption of ice are small at radio frequencies resulting in low loss tangent, skin depth, and attenuation values.
[5][6] The subsurface observation of ice masses using radio waves has been an integral and evolving geophysical technique in glaciology for over half a century.
[86][87][88] Radioglaciology data has also been used extensively to study subglacial lakes[89][90][91][92][93][94] and glacial hydrology[95] including englacial water,[96][97][98] firn aquifers,[99] and their temporal evolution.
[17] Ice penetrating radars are also included in the payloads of two planned missions to the icy moons of Jupiter: JUICE and Europa Clipper.