The sensitivity of three low-frequency (<1 GHz) ground-penetrating radar attributes commonly used to infer the amount of fines present within railway ballast was evaluated using synthetic datasets. Variations in ballast thickness, saturation, and subballast material type are not often considered during laboratory or small-scale (few kilometres of track) field studies. If ground-penetrating radar were to be applied as a ballast degradation detection tool on a subdivision (hundreds of kilometres) scale, it is critical to assess the impact variations these track foundation conditions will have on the inferred amount of fines present within the ballast. In this analysis, a two-layer (ballast and subballast) track foundation model was incorporated into a series of ground-penetrating radar simulations where the physical dimensions and electromagnetic properties of the model were systematically varied. It was through the electromagnetic properties that the volumetric amount of fines and moisture present within the ballast and the type of subballast material were altered. The ground-penetrating radar response of each model was simulated using a finite-difference time-domain solver for Maxwell’s equations (gprMax). The amount of fines present in the ballast was then inferred through attributes calculated from the synthetic ground-penetrating radar measurements and related to the known model input. This comparison revealed that ambiguities in the ground-penetrating radar attribute amplitudes were common. Specific ground-penetrating radar attribute amplitudes could not be uniquely associated with the known amounts of fines present within the ballast as the other conditions in the track foundation (ballast saturation, ballast thickness, and subballast material) were varied. As such, a quantitative and reliable estimation for the amount of fines present within ballast using ground-penetrating radar measurements over large scales would be difficult without first constraining the variability in the track foundation.

The progressive degradation of railway ballast is often cited as a primary factor that contributes to the development of track roughness, while ballast renewal (undercutting) attempts to manage its long-term development. Soft subgrades have been shown to strongly influence track geometry and are a contributing factor that has not been considered during conventional track maintenance. This study evaluated the impact of undercutting on long-term trends in track geometry roughness, and what impact softer subgrades had on the effectiveness of undercutting. A combined 6.90 km of Class II–IV heavy-haul track in Western Canada (undercut in 2010 and 2011) formed the basis for this analysis. Annual traffic on these sections typically totals 50 million gross tonnes. Long-term trends in the track crosslevel, alignment, and surface roughness after ballast renewal were derived from 50 track geometry surveys carried out over a five-year period (2010–2015). The results showed that undercutting significantly reduced track roughness over sand, silt, clay, or till subgrades; however, it was often ineffective when used over soft organic subgrades. Thus, while ballast degradation is the primary cause of track roughness in segments constructed on mineral subgrades, it is not a mechanism that results in track geometry roughness over soft organic soils.

The interpretations of relevant interfaces (i.e. the surface and bed) in radar sounding datasets over glaciers and ice sheets are primary boundary conditions in a variety of climate studies and particularly subglacial water routing models. It is therefore necessary to ensure these interpretations are consistent and not affected by cross-track clutter. For the surface interface, interferometry and a family of methods relying on digital elevation models have been used to successfully discriminate cross-track surface clutter. Here we present how interferometry can be applied to the problem of basal clutter from cross-track bed topography. Our approach is based on a comparison of the differential phases of ambiguous reflectors that may represent bed clutter and the differential phase of a reflector in an adjacent area that appears unaffected by basal clutter. The reflector yielding the smallest interferometric phase difference relative to the unambiguous bed reflector is considered to represent its consistent continuation. We successfully demonstrate our approach using 60 MHz center frequency MARFA data collected over Devon Ice Cap in the Canadian Arctic. Finally, we investigate the effects of clutter-affected and interferometry-corrected bed interpretations on ice layer thickness estimates, basal hydraulic head gradients and the potential extent of inferred subglacial water bodies.

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