Transparentize A Shallow Cryosphere: High-Resolution Subsurface Imaging Using UAV-Borne Ground-Penetrating Radar: A review and prospective

Abstract

Accurate characterization of shallow cryosphere subsurface structures is critical for understanding snow and ice dynamics, evaluating environmental hazards, and informing climate-related decision making. Recent advances in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and compact radar instrumentation have enabled UAV-borne ground penetrating radar (GPR) as a non-contact alternative for subsurface sensing in these environments. By combining the safety-constrained mobility of unmanned aerial platforms with the penetration capability of radar, UAV-borne GPR facilitates rapid, wide-coverage and flexible surveys over snow and ice surfaces in cryosphere that are often inaccessible to traditional ground-based methods. This contribution reviews recent progress in UAV-borne GPR for cryosphere investigations, encompassing system architectures, operational strategies, and representative deployment practices. Furthermore, key data-processing methodologies are summarized for their roles in enhancing subsurface imaging and reconstruction fidelity. A case study from Mochou Lake in East Antarctica, illustrates these capabilities, yielding an ice-thickness estimation error of only 0.03 m when benchmarked against drilling measurements. Finally, the remaining challenges, particularly those associated with scanning coverage, real-time data processing, and detection accuracy, are discussed for future cryosphere applications.