The Influence of Bubbles on the Seasonal SAR Backscatter Response of Perennially Ice-Covered Lakes, Antarctica ...
Antarctica is home to numerous perennially ice-covered (PIC) lakes that host rich benthic microbial ecosystems. These lakes are covered by a thick floating ice cover year-round and often have water columns supersaturated in dissolved gases, resulting in heavily bubbled ice covers, altering the optic...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
2023
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-29845 http://ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/45641 |
| Summary: | Antarctica is home to numerous perennially ice-covered (PIC) lakes that host rich benthic microbial ecosystems. These lakes are covered by a thick floating ice cover year-round and often have water columns supersaturated in dissolved gases, resulting in heavily bubbled ice covers, altering the optical properties of the ice and the amount of light that penetrates into the water column. Thus, understanding the optical properties of perennial lake ice can have important scientific implications to the study of life on Earth and the search for extraterrestrial life. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing has been used rigorously for over 50 years to study and monitor the seasonal response and long-term trends of backscatter over seasonally ice-covered (SIC) Arctic lakes. Limited studies have assessed the impacts of dissolved gases and ice/water interface bubbles on SAR backscatter variability over SIC lakes. The seasonal backscatter response of Antarctic PIC lakes remains unexplored; their physical nature ... |
|---|