The trick is to use metamaterials: materials that owe their characteristics to features of their structure that are smaller than the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation.
The radar sends radio wave pulses into the ice sheet, and the waves bounce off buried features, informing researchers about the characteristics of the snow and ice layers.
Dr Whitelaw's work is one part of a growing body of evidence suggesting that understanding inherited epigenetic features may be necessary to work out how animals pass on physical characteristics or susceptibility to disease.