Development of a MIMO VHF Radar for the Search of the Oldest Ice in Antarctica

A chirped-pulse radar ice sounder, operating at VHF band, was developed in 2019 for the search of the “oldest ice” in East Antarctica. This ground-penetrating radar system has a multiple-in–multiple-out (MIMO) configuration with a total of eight channels. Each transmitter generates a 170–230-MHz chirp signal with a peak power of 1 kW. To support the half-duplex operation with such high power, a customized T/R switch is designed and developed. To increase the power-aperture product, the radar is equipped with an eight-element linear antenna array, which has a length of 8 m. In this letter, the radar hardware architecture, high-power T/R switch design, antenna array design, and sample field measurement results from Dome C Antarctica are presented.