Microwave remote sensing of snowy surfaces over the Arctic : evaluation of surface processes of the Barnes Ice Cap, Nunavut, Canada

• Main Author: Dupont, Florent
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Grenoble, Université de Sherbrooke (Québec, Canada), Michel Fily, Alain Royer
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: Ice cap; Arctic; Climate; Snow; Microwave remote sensing; Télédétection micro-onde; Neige; Climat; Arctique; Calotte glaciaire; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; Baffin Island; Barnes Ice Cap; Canada; Greenland; Nunavut; Antarc*; Antarctica; Arctique*; Baffin; Climate change; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01070037; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01070037/document; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01070037/file/pdf2star-1401784169-38843_DUPONT_2013_archivage.pdf

Significant climate change is curently monitored in the Arctic, and especially in the region of the canadian arctic archipellago. This climate warming leads to recession of sea-ice extent and seasonnal snow cover, and also to large mass loss of the archipellago's ice caps. One of the most southern ice cap, the Barnes Ice Cap, located on the Baffin Island, is no exception to significant mass loss and margins recession as satellite observations exhibited over the last decades. Despite the relative low sea level potential of the small ice caps located in the canadian arctic achipellago in regards to major ice sheets, Antarctica and Greenland, their contribution to the current sea level rise is significant. Climate projections show that this contribution could accelerate significant over the next decades. However, to estimate the future evolution of these ice caps and their impact on climate or sea level rise, a better characterisation of the surface processes such as the evolution of the surface mass balance is needed. This knowledge is currently very limited, mainly due to the sparse covering of automatic weather stations or in-situ measurements over the Arctic. Furthermore, several ice caps, among with the Barnes Ice Cap, present a superimposed ice accumulation area which particularities have to be taken into account in the surface processes studies. Given the lack of in-situ data, the approach choosen in this work is to use remote sensing data, that have the advantage to offer a good spatial and temporal coverage. In particular, passive microwave data are very suitable for snowy surfaces studies. To complement these data, physical and electromagnetic snowpack modeling provide a fine characterisation of surface processes such as snow accumulation. The whole work presented in this manuscript thus consisted in developping specific tools to improve the understanding of surface processes of small arctic ice caps. This methodological development was performed and applied on the Barnes Ice Cap using the surface scheme ...