A radar is used before any drilling – to map out any rivers and channels in the ice. We use a 50MHz setting and carry out a grid survey.
In 2011 we used the more modern system borrowed from the NERC equipment pool: this has a much nicer console and writes data to a CF card. Our pipe-structure was used to maintain their position and make it faster to move along. The data showed us the depth profile of the glacier so we could choose where to drill and try to avoid rivers etc.
The 'old' radar system in use in 2004.