The Chilean Navy has always contributed to the development of many projects of all kind. Among these, one of the most important recent year’s contributions on scientific research is its participation in the SIRAHT-Ice Project, which aim is to determine the internal structure of large ice masses and the volume of water they contain.
The increasing level of the sea as a result of the planets large ice masses thawing causes climate changes that affect millions of people worldwide. This project enables models and projections to predict future glacier retreat, an indicator of global warming.
The project began in November and December 2002 with the first joint campaigns between the Valdivia Centre for Scientific Research (CECS), NASA and the Chilean Navy; repeated in 2004, they consisted on carrying out unprecedented exploratory flights by our P-3 ACH aircraft over Antarctic glaciers and “Campos de Hielo” ice field of the Chilean Patagonia.
The Antarctic stages of the project were highly successful and provided significant data for the international scientific community as well as being subject of intense discussion in leading journals and publications.
However, in “Campos de Hielo”, practically no radar data was collected from ice glaciers due to their nature in Southern Chile, which contains a large amount of water just at melting point, for which reason it is named temperate ice.
It was because of this that the need of a new airborne sensor capable of measuring at least 1000 meters thickness of temperate ice, something which had never been achieved in “Campos de Hielo” before, was defined. With this aim in mind in 2005, the CECS and the Chilean Navy signed a protocol agreement for the development of a device with such capabilities, known as the SIRAHT (Airborne Radar System for Temperate Ice) Project, to be financed in equal parts by both parties.
The system was to be backed by one of the Navy’s C-212 aircraft to transport the radar and deploy the corresponding transmitter and aerial.
During November and December 2006, the first campaign was carried out in the area of Torres del Paine and Tyndall Glacier, succeeding in measuring 650 meters of temperate ice. This campaign represented the first successful aerial measurement of its kind in Patagonia, unlike previous expeditions by glaciologists of several nationalities.
In March 2007, a second campaign in “Campos de Hielo Norte” managed to penetrate nearly 1000 meters of temperate ice. This latest campaign marked the achievement of the objective of the project and placed the Chilean Navy and the CECS at the forefront of world scientific technology.
Development of the SIRAHT
The SIRAHT system was designed by the CECS with the support of engineers from the Navy’s Program, Research and Development Section (DIPRIDA), whilst building, including the prototype radar system, transmitter, receiver, control stage and storage, was commissioned from the state company LINKTRONIC.
Engineers from CECS and the Navy were responsible for the aerial and for fitting the entire system on board the aircraft.
The first prototype was completed in mid 2006.
