Mapping of the DOME-C area in Antarctica by an airborne L-band radiometer

• Published in: 2014 IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
• Main Authors: Skou, Niels, Kristensen, Steen Savstrup, Søbjærg, Sten Schmidl, Balling, Jan E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2014
• Subjects: Geoscience; Antarctica; Brightness temperature; Calibration; L-band; radiometer; Radiometry; Surfaces; Temperature measurement; Concordia Station; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/5c6db17e-4dc6-4eb2-b570-40e07af95e34; https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS.2014.6947264

A 350 × 350 km area near the Concordia station on the high plateau of Dome C in Antarctica has been mapped by an airborne L-band radiometer system. The area was expected to display a rather uniform brightness temperature close to the yearly mean temperature — well suited for calibration checks for spaceborne instruments like SMOS, Aquarius, and SMAP. The measured brightness temperatures shows unexpected variations like 8 K variation on an East-West profile through Concordia, and in certain cases a slope of almost 1 K per km. Comparing the measured brightness temperature map with bottom topography reveals a convincing correlation. Simulations show that variations in bedrock topography can indeed modulate the brightness temperature appropriately to explain the observed variations.