Freeboard height and snow depth observed by floating GPS on land-fast sea ice in Nella Fjord, Antarctica
Abstract Although altimeters have been widely used to monitor the spatiotemporal variation of sea-ice thickness, they are unable to separate sea-ice freeboard from snow depth. We use a floating GPS deployed on sea ice to derive the freeboard and snow depth near China's Zhongshan Station. Our re...
Published in: | Annals of Glaciology |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.41 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0260305520000415 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/aog.2020.41 2024-06-09T07:38:30+00:00 Freeboard height and snow depth observed by floating GPS on land-fast sea ice in Nella Fjord, Antarctica Zhang, Qingchuan Li, Fei Lei, Jintao Zhang, Shengkai Ding, Zhuoming Chen, Wu Li, Wenhao 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.41 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0260305520000415 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Annals of Glaciology volume 61, issue 82, page 227-239 ISSN 0260-3055 1727-5644 journal-article 2020 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.41 2024-05-15T13:08:57Z Abstract Although altimeters have been widely used to monitor the spatiotemporal variation of sea-ice thickness, they are unable to separate sea-ice freeboard from snow depth. We use a floating GPS deployed on sea ice to derive the freeboard and snow depth near China's Zhongshan Station. Our results show that the standalone floating GPS can monitor freeboard with a precision of 4.2 cm. If time-varying dynamic ocean topography provided by, for example, a bottom pressure gauge is available, then the precision of GPS-derived freeboard can improve to 1.3 cm. The daily snow depth inverted by GPS interferometric reflectometry captures three precipitation events during our experiment, showing that the floating GPS can monitor the variation in snow depth and observe the freeboard variation at the same time. By studying the relationship between freeboard, snow depth and sea-ice thickness, we find that sea-ice thickness will be greatly underestimated by the negative single-point freeboard under the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium. As a supplement to existing technologies, the GPS-derived freeboard and snow depth can be used both to evaluate the altimeter observations directly and to improve our understanding of the real-time variation of freeboard and snow depth in the experimental area. Article in Journal/Newspaper Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctica Sea ice Cambridge University Press Zhongshan ENVELOPE(76.371,76.371,-69.373,-69.373) Zhongshan Station ENVELOPE(76.371,76.371,-69.373,-69.373) Nella Fjord ENVELOPE(76.350,76.350,-69.375,-69.375) Annals of Glaciology 61 82 227 239 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Although altimeters have been widely used to monitor the spatiotemporal variation of sea-ice thickness, they are unable to separate sea-ice freeboard from snow depth. We use a floating GPS deployed on sea ice to derive the freeboard and snow depth near China's Zhongshan Station. Our results show that the standalone floating GPS can monitor freeboard with a precision of 4.2 cm. If time-varying dynamic ocean topography provided by, for example, a bottom pressure gauge is available, then the precision of GPS-derived freeboard can improve to 1.3 cm. The daily snow depth inverted by GPS interferometric reflectometry captures three precipitation events during our experiment, showing that the floating GPS can monitor the variation in snow depth and observe the freeboard variation at the same time. By studying the relationship between freeboard, snow depth and sea-ice thickness, we find that sea-ice thickness will be greatly underestimated by the negative single-point freeboard under the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium. As a supplement to existing technologies, the GPS-derived freeboard and snow depth can be used both to evaluate the altimeter observations directly and to improve our understanding of the real-time variation of freeboard and snow depth in the experimental area. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Zhang, Qingchuan Li, Fei Lei, Jintao Zhang, Shengkai Ding, Zhuoming Chen, Wu Li, Wenhao |
spellingShingle |
Zhang, Qingchuan Li, Fei Lei, Jintao Zhang, Shengkai Ding, Zhuoming Chen, Wu Li, Wenhao Freeboard height and snow depth observed by floating GPS on land-fast sea ice in Nella Fjord, Antarctica |
author_facet |
Zhang, Qingchuan Li, Fei Lei, Jintao Zhang, Shengkai Ding, Zhuoming Chen, Wu Li, Wenhao |
author_sort |
Zhang, Qingchuan |
title |
Freeboard height and snow depth observed by floating GPS on land-fast sea ice in Nella Fjord, Antarctica |
title_short |
Freeboard height and snow depth observed by floating GPS on land-fast sea ice in Nella Fjord, Antarctica |
title_full |
Freeboard height and snow depth observed by floating GPS on land-fast sea ice in Nella Fjord, Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Freeboard height and snow depth observed by floating GPS on land-fast sea ice in Nella Fjord, Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Freeboard height and snow depth observed by floating GPS on land-fast sea ice in Nella Fjord, Antarctica |
title_sort |
freeboard height and snow depth observed by floating gps on land-fast sea ice in nella fjord, antarctica |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.41 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0260305520000415 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(76.371,76.371,-69.373,-69.373) ENVELOPE(76.371,76.371,-69.373,-69.373) ENVELOPE(76.350,76.350,-69.375,-69.375) |
geographic |
Zhongshan Zhongshan Station Nella Fjord |
geographic_facet |
Zhongshan Zhongshan Station Nella Fjord |
genre |
Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctica Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctica Sea ice |
op_source |
Annals of Glaciology volume 61, issue 82, page 227-239 ISSN 0260-3055 1727-5644 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.41 |
container_title |
Annals of Glaciology |
container_volume |
61 |
container_issue |
82 |
container_start_page |
227 |
op_container_end_page |
239 |
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1801373289044508672 |