The High Capability Airborne Radar Sounder (HiCARS) is an aircraft-carried ice-penetrating radar operated by the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. The system uses two flat plate dipole antennas, one mounted under each aircraft wing 19 meters apart horizontally, providing approximately 10 dB of antenna gain. Researchers use HiCARS data to build profiles of ice sheets that show the ice surface, internal layers, and the bedrock. HiCARS has been used extensively in Antarctica.
