| Summary: | Progress Code: completed Statement: See the thesis accompanying the dataset for more information. Public Summary for project 2901 This research will contribute to a large multi-disciplinary study of the physics and biology of the Antarctic sea ice zone in early Spring 2007. The physical characteristics of the sea ice will be directly measured using satellite-tracked drifting buoys, ice core analysis and drilled measurements, with detailed measurements of snow cover thickness and properties. Aircraft-based instrumentation will be used to expand our survey area beyond the ship's track and for remote sampling. The data collected will provide valuable ground-truthing for existing and future satellite missions and improve our understanding of the role of sea ice in the climate system. Project objectives: (i) to quantify the spatial variability in sea ice and snow cover properties over scales of metres to hundreds of kilometres in the region of 110 - 130 degrees E, in order to improve the accuracy of sea ice thickness estimates from satellite altimetry and polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. (ii) To determine the drift characteristics, and internal stress, of sea ice in the region 110 - 130 degrees E. (iii) To investigate the relationships between the physical sea ice environment and the structure of Southern Ocean ecosystems (joint with AAS Proposal 2767). Taken from the abstract of the PhD thesis accompanying the dataset: Antarctic sea ice and its snow cover are integral components of the global climate system, yet many aspects of their vertical dimensions are poorly understood, making their representation in global climate models poor. Remote sensing is the key to monitoring the dynamic nature of sea ice and its snow cover. Reliable and accurate snow thickness data from an airborne platform is currently a highly sought after data product. Remotely sensed snow thickness measurements can provide an indication of precipitation levels. These are predicted to increase with effects of climate change, ...
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