Remote sensing of land surface conditions in arctic tundra regions for climatological applications using microwave radiometry.

• Main Author: Kim, Edward Jinhyong
• Other Authors: England, Anthony W.
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 1999
• Subjects: Applications; Arctic; Climate Change; Climatological; Conditions; Land Surface; Microwave Radiometry; Regions; Remote Sensing; Tundra; Using; Climate change; north slope; permafrost; Alaska
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/131691; http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:9929864

Several climate change scenarios have predicted that the greatest changes would occur at high latitudes. In the arctic, long-term changes in temperature would be reflected, for example, in the growth or retreat of permafrost regions and in the response of the vegetation. Tundra-covered areas are a major terrestrial reservoir of carbon and changes in temperature and moisture will affect the storage and release of carbon by the tundra. The primary contribution of this dissertation is the development of a land surface process/radiobrightness (LSP/R) model for arctic tundra areas underlain by continuous permafrost. LSP models provide land-atmosphere boundary conditions for atmospheric circulation models (ACMs). The accuracy of the LSP parameterizations used by various ACMs is a significant source of uncertainty. By linking the tundra LSP/R model to satellite observations, the performance of the LSP model over areas such as the North Slope of Alaska may be monitored more widely and more frequently than is currently feasible. The scope of this dissertation includes the first step of this approach: the forward problem of matching tundra LSP/R model predictions with ground-based point observations of radiobrightness. The LSP/R model is a one-dimensional, physically-based model of energy and moisture fluxes inside the tundra and between the tundra and the atmosphere. While too computationally intensive to be an operational LSP model, it can be run retrospectively for selected regions to obtain much higher fidelity estimates of temperature and moisture profiles within tundra than would be available from any operational LSP model. The choice of a physical model is intended to provide insights into the land surface processes, guidance when developing or improving parameterizations for operational LSP models, and extendibility to regions with different vegetation and conditions. Model development was supported by data from a one-year field experiment, Radiobrightness Energy Balance Experiment 3 (REBEX-3). Microwave emission ...