Brief Communication: Update on the GPS reflection technique for measuring snow accumulation in Greenland

GPS interferometric reflectometry (GPS-IR) is a technique that can be used to measure snow accumulation on ice sheets. The footprint of the method ( ∼1000 m 2 ) is larger than that of many other in situ methods. A long-term comparison with hand measurements yielded an accuracy assessment of 2 cm. De...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Cryosphere
Main Authors: Larson, Kristine M., MacFerrin, Michael, Nylen, Thomas
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1985-2020
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/1985/2020/
Description
Summary:GPS interferometric reflectometry (GPS-IR) is a technique that can be used to measure snow accumulation on ice sheets. The footprint of the method ( ∼1000 m 2 ) is larger than that of many other in situ methods. A long-term comparison with hand measurements yielded an accuracy assessment of 2 cm. Depending on the placement of the GPS antenna, these data are also sensitive to firn density. The purpose of this short note is to make public GPS-IR measurements of snow accumulation for four sites in Greenland, compare these records with in situ sensors, and make available open-source GPS-IR software to the cryosphere community.