Snow microwave emission modelnig: Applications on the Antarctic ice cap and on Quebec

• Main Author: Brucker, Ludovic
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Joseph-Fourier - Grenoble I, Michel Fily & Ghislain Picard([e-mail]), PNTS 2006, ANR VANISH, Collaboration avec le CARTEL (Québec, CANADA)
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2009
• Subjects: Microwave remote sensing; snowpack; Polar regions; climate; modeling; Télédétection micro-onde; neige; régions polaires; climat; modélisation; [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctique*; Ice cap; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00433824; https://theses.hal.science/tel-00433824/document; https://theses.hal.science/tel-00433824/file/Brucker_these.pdf

The cryosphere has a key role in the climate system, among others because it reflects a significant fraction of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface and contains a large amount of fresh water in solid form. Because of the sensitivity of the cryosphere to climatic variables such as temperature and precipitation, the various elements of the cryosphere, such as the Antarctic ice cap and the seasonal snow over the subarctic regions, are indicators of global climate change. However, our knowledge of polar regions are limited by a lack of in situ observations reflecting the remoteness of these regions and the hard weather conditions. The analysis of these sparse observations can be enhanced through remote sensing to reduce uncertainties about climate trends observed at high latitudes. Indeed, remote sensing allows continuous and large-scale observations of polar and subpolar regions. Passive remote sensing, especially in the microwave domain is suitable to interpret and monitor the physical properties of the snowpack. Indeed, the microwave radiation emanates from the ground or snow itself, and then propagates to the surface. Thus, the emerging radiation contains information on vertical variations of snow properties, such as temperature and microstructure properties (grain size and density). These three properties determine the snow microwave emission of a dry snowpack. For wet snowpacks, the liquid water content is the property which dominate the emission. The temporal evolution and vertical variations of these different properties are defined by the metamorphism. Their link with the microwave emission is considered by the radiative transfer. This thesis aims at explaining the microwave emission from snow by forward modeling to understand the evolution of the main physical properties of snow. The radiative transfer in snow has been calculated with the multilayer model Microwave Emission Model of Layered Snowpack (MEMLS) and multilayered Dense Media Radiative Transfer (DMRT-ML), based on semi-empirical and ...