Validation of Airborne FMCW Radar Measurements of Snow Thickness Over Sea Ice in Antarctica
Antarctic sea ice and its snow cover are integral components of the global climate system, yet many aspects of their vertical dimensions are poorly understood, making their representation in global climate models poor. Remote sensing is the key to monitoring the dynamic nature of sea ice and its sno...
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:20140008935 2023-05-15T13:33:56+02:00 Validation of Airborne FMCW Radar Measurements of Snow Thickness Over Sea Ice in Antarctica Galin, Natalia Markus, Thorsten Worby, Anthony Gogineni, Prasad Leuschen, Carl Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available January 2012 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140008935 unknown Document ID: 20140008935 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140008935 Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright CASI Earth Resources and Remote Sensing GSFC-E-DAA-TN9384 Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (ISSN 0196-2892); 50; 1; 3-12 2012 ftnasantrs 2019-07-21T00:29:00Z Antarctic sea ice and its snow cover are integral components of the global climate system, yet many aspects of their vertical dimensions are poorly understood, making their representation in global climate models poor. Remote sensing is the key to monitoring the dynamic nature of sea ice and its snow cover. Reliable and accurate snow thickness data are currently a highly sought after data product. Remotely sensed snow thickness measurements can provide an indication of precipitation levels, predicted to increase with effects of climate change in the polar regions. Airborne techniques provide a means for regional-scale estimation of snow depth and distribution. Accurate regional-scale snow thickness data will also facilitate an increase in the accuracy of sea ice thickness retrieval from satellite altimeter freeboard estimates. The airborne data sets are easier to validate with in situ measurements and are better suited to validating satellite algorithms when compared with in situ techniques. This is primarily due to two factors: better chance of getting coincident in situ and airborne data sets and the tractability of comparison between an in situ data set and the airborne data set averaged over the footprint of the antennas. A 28-GHz frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar loaned by the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets to the Australian Antarctic Division is used to measure snow thickness over sea ice in East Antarctica. Provided with the radar design parameters, the expected performance parameters of the radar are summarized. The necessary conditions for unambiguous identification of the airsnow and snowice layers for the radar are presented. Roughnesses of the snow and ice surfaces are found to be dominant determinants in the effectiveness of layer identification for this radar. Finally, this paper presents the first in situ validated snow thickness estimates over sea ice in Antarctica derived from an FMCW radar on a helicopterborne platform. Other/Unknown Material Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Australian Antarctic Division East Antarctica Sea ice NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Antarctic East Antarctica |
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
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Earth Resources and Remote Sensing |
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Earth Resources and Remote Sensing Galin, Natalia Markus, Thorsten Worby, Anthony Gogineni, Prasad Leuschen, Carl Validation of Airborne FMCW Radar Measurements of Snow Thickness Over Sea Ice in Antarctica |
topic_facet |
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing |
description |
Antarctic sea ice and its snow cover are integral components of the global climate system, yet many aspects of their vertical dimensions are poorly understood, making their representation in global climate models poor. Remote sensing is the key to monitoring the dynamic nature of sea ice and its snow cover. Reliable and accurate snow thickness data are currently a highly sought after data product. Remotely sensed snow thickness measurements can provide an indication of precipitation levels, predicted to increase with effects of climate change in the polar regions. Airborne techniques provide a means for regional-scale estimation of snow depth and distribution. Accurate regional-scale snow thickness data will also facilitate an increase in the accuracy of sea ice thickness retrieval from satellite altimeter freeboard estimates. The airborne data sets are easier to validate with in situ measurements and are better suited to validating satellite algorithms when compared with in situ techniques. This is primarily due to two factors: better chance of getting coincident in situ and airborne data sets and the tractability of comparison between an in situ data set and the airborne data set averaged over the footprint of the antennas. A 28-GHz frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar loaned by the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets to the Australian Antarctic Division is used to measure snow thickness over sea ice in East Antarctica. Provided with the radar design parameters, the expected performance parameters of the radar are summarized. The necessary conditions for unambiguous identification of the airsnow and snowice layers for the radar are presented. Roughnesses of the snow and ice surfaces are found to be dominant determinants in the effectiveness of layer identification for this radar. Finally, this paper presents the first in situ validated snow thickness estimates over sea ice in Antarctica derived from an FMCW radar on a helicopterborne platform. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Galin, Natalia Markus, Thorsten Worby, Anthony Gogineni, Prasad Leuschen, Carl |
author_facet |
Galin, Natalia Markus, Thorsten Worby, Anthony Gogineni, Prasad Leuschen, Carl |
author_sort |
Galin, Natalia |
title |
Validation of Airborne FMCW Radar Measurements of Snow Thickness Over Sea Ice in Antarctica |
title_short |
Validation of Airborne FMCW Radar Measurements of Snow Thickness Over Sea Ice in Antarctica |
title_full |
Validation of Airborne FMCW Radar Measurements of Snow Thickness Over Sea Ice in Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Validation of Airborne FMCW Radar Measurements of Snow Thickness Over Sea Ice in Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Validation of Airborne FMCW Radar Measurements of Snow Thickness Over Sea Ice in Antarctica |
title_sort |
validation of airborne fmcw radar measurements of snow thickness over sea ice in antarctica |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140008935 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Australian Antarctic Division East Antarctica Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Australian Antarctic Division East Antarctica Sea ice |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 20140008935 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140008935 |
op_rights |
Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright |
_version_ |
1766047250184667136 |