he results of GPR survey performed in the surroundings of the Mirny Antarctic station are presented together with the data of numerical modeling of GPR profiling across the cracks in the ice. Work and transport operations on the glacier are associated with the risk of loss of people and equipment due to cracks existed. Some cracks are covered by snow and can’t be visually detected. GPR is a suitable method for searching cracks and voids in the ice. GPR survey was performed in the season 2017/18 with the aim of snow airfield inspection. As a result of geophysical works some cracks were found on and under the surface, and it was decided to reduce the length of the airfield from 1300 to 1200 meters.

Interpretation of GPR data is performed mainly at the base of analysis of characteristic wave pictures. Thus, synthetic data from different snow and ice structures can help in making a glacier model. Numerical modeling of GPR survey with gprMax package has shown that introducing fractal irregularities in the walls of cracks leads to the wave patterns similar to the real field data. Synthetic radargrams for several types of cracks were obtained. It was confirmed that multiple hyperbolic reflections, by which cracks are usually identified on radargrams, are contributed by inhomogeneities of different scales on the side walls of cracks.