The study of the ice crossings on the rivers by the ground-penetrating radar

An ice road will be organized across bodies of water in winter to enable the movement of vehicles and people, thus creating the proper living and operating conditions for the local population and industry. Possible loads and measures necessary to ensure the rigidness of the ice must be considered when setting up such crossings. This article produces the results of research on the ice crossings using GPR. The data was obtained by “OKO-2” with AB-400 (AB-400R), AB-1200, and AB-1700 (AB-1700R) antenna units (OOO “LogiS”, Russia). The final measurements of the river ice were produced by the drilling method. Much time was spent on the adjustment of the research techniques, the efficient assessment of GPR-works by different antenna units, determination of permittivity and the ice structure, and the ice thickness variation along the ice crossings. Surveying of the Lena River by GPR shows that the ice thickness varies from 103 cm to 260 cm. The average ice thickness is 164.5 cm (Yakutsk - Nizhny Bestyakh ice crossing) and 185 cm (Khatassy - Pavlovsk ice crossing) with the coefficients of variation 11.8% and 16% correspondingly. It is established that continuous GPR-data allows the estimation of the ice structure throughout the winter road, consisting of the natural ice, layers of frozen ice, and the snow ice with heterogeneity and cracks in the frozen ice. A possibility to distinguish the layers of the ice cover on the rivers using GPR allows us to determine the estimated ice thickness and avoid errors in setting the carrying capacities of the ice crossings on the rivers.