Seasonal and Interannual Trends in Antarctic Ice Sheet Microwave Data

• Main Authors: Andrew W. Bingham, Mark R. Drinkwater
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1999
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.42.2515; http://polar.jpl.nasa.gov/Publications/awb_igass99.pdf

Time-series microwave satellite observations are used to investigate seasonal and interannual changes in the surface characteristics of the Antarctic ice sheet. Enhanced-resolution Cband ERS-1/2 scatterometer (ESCAT) backscatter and DMSP SSMI brightness temperature images of Antarctica, acquired on a 3-day interval between 1992 and 1997, have been analysed. Both ESCAT and SSMI data show a clear seasonal cycle over all areas of the ice sheet. Using multi-layered radiative transfer models we demonstrate these cycles result primarily from thermal forcing. We also note significant interannual trends in both data sets. At the margins of the ice sheet, where melting is known to have occurred, backscatter and brightness temperature trends are typically less than-0.25 dB/year and greater than +1 K/year, respectively. It is likely these trends are linked to accumulation of new snow and successive burial of scatterers (formed during the last significant summer melt period) . In the interior of t.