ERS-1 Radar and Field-Observed Characteristics of Autumn Freeze-up in the Weddell Sea
ERS-1 satellite microwave radar data are analyzed to investigate changes in sea-ice characteristics during a period when a drifting ice camp was deployed in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Synthetic Aperture Radar and scatterometer data are calibrated and geolocated to derive a time series of Cband bac...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.34.1847 http://polar.jpl.nasa.gov/Publications/Drink+Lytle_jgr97.pdf |
| Summary: | ERS-1 satellite microwave radar data are analyzed to investigate changes in sea-ice characteristics during a period when a drifting ice camp was deployed in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Synthetic Aperture Radar and scatterometer data are calibrated and geolocated to derive a time series of Cband backscatter coefficient (s o ) corresponding with simultaneous surface measurements during the austral autumn freeze-up. Thermistor strings were implanted in the snow and ice at a number of local and regional sites. Surface measurements at these sites indicate that up to 50 % of the surface of ice floes surviving the summer were flooded, with an unconsolidated, saline slush layer at the snow/ice interface consisting of approximately half seawater and half ice of meteoric origin. The slush was typically 5 to 30 cm thick and covered by a 20 to 50 cm thick dry snow layer. Results show that the microwave radar backscatter characteristics of this perennial ice region responded sensitively to chang. |
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