In-situ measurement of the complex dielectric constant of sea ice from 1 to 10 GHz

Th authors have developed a new electromagnetic, hand-held, ultra wide-band probe for the in-situ measurement of the complex dielectric constant of sea ice in the frequency range of 1 to 10 GHz. The probe uses two antennas mounted on a cylinder. One of the antennas transmits a wide-band pulse that propagates through the ice and is received by the second antenna. From the received signal the authors can extract the complex dielectric constant. In order to calibrate the results they developed a numerical model for the probe using the FDTD technique. With this model they can reproduce the measurements and introduce calibration factors in order to extract the dielectric constant. A brief description of the probe and its FDTD model is given. Results for sea ice grown at the CRREL facility are presented.