KU gets $1.7 million to improve systems to study climate change

Researchers with Kansas University’s Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets have received a $1.7 million grant to improve radar systems for capturing images of polar ice sheets from aircraft.

The three-year, $1.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation will go to Rick Hale, associate professor of aerospace engineering at KU, and other collaborators.

They will use the funds to develop improved radar that can capture higher-resolution images of wide spans of polar ice sheets, while also mapping the sheets’ internal layers up to 2.5 miles deep, Hale said in a KU release.

Researchers use KU’s radar systems to determine where to drill for core samples from ice sheets, which can reveal changes that have taken place over the course of thousands of years.

CReSIS researchers monitor polar ice sheets and predict how they’ll be affected by climate change.

Researchers developing the new radar will make use of labs in the School of Engineering’s newest building, the Measurement, Materials and Sustainable Environment Center.