Spatial characteristics of snow accumulation in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

Richardson-Näslund, Cecilia

doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2003.11.009

Cited by 26 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…11 is the typical trend of decreasing snow accumulation with increasing elevation (also Fig. 7) and distance to the coast, described in further detail in [39]. Undulations appear on a kilometer scale.…”

Section: A Transect Neumayer-kottasmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…10) our classification results differ between both sensors concerning the exact pixel location of a certain surface class only. This region is known for its high spatial variability in surface conditions, due to changes in local weather conditions, changing winds and accumulation rates [32], [39], governed by orographic effects and surface undulations. For this, sample region ground truth data are available, crossing from the coastal percolation zone to the dry snow zone on the polar plateau.…”

Section: B Snow Pack Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ice-sheet modeling is uncertain due to missing small-scale data for most regions. Recently, traditional methods of accumulation measurements, i.e., stake line readings, or point sampling by snow pits and firn core drilling have been supplemented by ice-penetrating radar (IPR) studies capable of retrieving mass-balance information along continuous profile lines [12], [31], [33], [38], [39], [41]. Despite these efforts, there is still a lack of surface-mass-balance data at a resolution that is mapping the high spatial variability of accumulation rate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Retrieving snowpack properties and accumulation estimates from a combination of SAR and scatterometer measurements

Rotschky

Rack

Dierking

et al. 2006

IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing

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Abstract-This study combines two satellite radar techniques, low-resolution C-/Ku-band scatterometer and high-resolution C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for glaciological studies, in particular mass-balance estimations. Three parameters expressing the mean backscattering and its dependency on azimuth and incidence angle are used to describe and classify the Antarctic ice sheets backscattering behavior. Simple linear regression analyses are carried out between ground truth accumulation data and the SAR backscattering coefficient along continuous profile lines. From this we parameterize the accumulation rate separately for certain snow pack regimes. We find that SAR data can be used to map mass-balance changes, however only within limited areas. Applying this method therefore generally requires accurate ground truth for regional calibration together with additional information regarding mean air temperature or elevation. This investigation focuses on the area of Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. We present the first high-resolution accumulation map based on SAR data for the surrounding area of the EPICA deep ice core drilling site Kohnen, which is compared to reliable ground truth records as well as to a surface-mass-balance map interpolated from these at low resolution.

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Section: A Transect Neumayer-kottasmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: B Snow Pack Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Retrieving snowpack properties and accumulation estimates from a combination of SAR and scatterometer measurements

Rotschky

Rack

Dierking

et al. 2006

IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing

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“…Rotschky et al (2007) combined data from field campaigns in the western Dronning Maud Land over a 15-yr period, and provided detailed information on the spatial distribution of snow accumulation, quantifying its decrease from the coastal areas to the high plateau. The general spatial distribution in accumulation over the area maintains a rather typical pattern from year to year, but there are substantial variations in absolute accumulation between years (Richardson at al., 1997;Reijmer and van den Broeke, 2003;Richardson-Näslund, 2004). The snow properties are affected by the local topography and distance from the moisture source at the coast (Kärkäs et al, 2002(Kärkäs et al, , 2005.…”

Section: Study Area and Its Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal variability in summer snow pack in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

et al. 2011

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Abstract.To quantify the spatial and temporal variability in the snow pack, field measurements were carried out during four summers in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Data from a 310-km-long transect revealed the largest horizontal gradients in snow density, temperature, and hardness in the escarpment region. On the local scale, day-to-day temporal variability dominated the standard deviation of snow temperature, while the diurnal cycle was of second significance, and horizontal variability on the scale of 0.4 to 10 m was least important. In the uppermost 0.2 m, the snow temperature was correlated with the air temperature over the previous 6-12 h, whereas at the depths of 0.3 to 0.5 m the most important time scale was 3 days. Cloud cover and radiative fluxes affected the snow temperature in the uppermost 0.30 m and the snow density in the uppermost 0.10 m. Both on the intra-pit and transect scales, the ratio of horizontal to temporal variability increased with depth. The horizontal standard deviation of snow density increased rapidly between the scales of 0.4 and 2 m, and more gradually from 10 to 100 m. Inter-annual variations in snow temperature and density were due to interannual differences in air temperature and the timing of the precipitation events.

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“…This assumption is well justified on a regional scale for ice-sheet plateaus (e.g. Frezzotti and others, 2004;Richardson-Näslund, 2004;Rotschky and others, 2004;Arcone and others, 2005), but has to be considered with care on cold alpine glaciers. Note that the depth dependency of density is a prominent deviation from the incompressibility assumption often used in ice-sheet modelling.…”

Section: Assumptions and Boundary Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inference of velocity pattern from isochronous layers in firn, using an inverse method

Eisen

2008

J. Glaciol.

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ABSTRACT. The suitability of a kinematic approach for finding the velocity field from dated internallayer architecture in firn is investigated. Internal layers are isochrones and the depositional age of a layer particle is treated as a tracer. The forward problem uses two-dimensional steady-state advection of age and conservation of mass to predict layer architecture. Different combinations of constraints on horizontal and vertical velocity properties are added. The inverse problem can be formulated as the solution of underdetermined and overdetermined systems of equations. The systems are solved using singular-value decomposition, allowing analysis of the singular-value spectrum, model resolution and data resolution. Solutions of the inverse problem are evaluated by comparing the velocity-field solutions with synthetic input velocity data. Unlike conventional accumulation estimates, the new approach takes lateral advection into account, enabling improved separation of spatial and temporal variations in accumulation. Two glaciological applications are presented: the determination of the migration velocity of a spatially non-stationary accumulation pattern and reconstruction of past accumulation and its stationarity over time.

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Spatial characteristics of snow accumulation in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

Cited by 26 publications

References 36 publications

Retrieving snowpack properties and accumulation estimates from a combination of SAR and scatterometer measurements

Retrieving snowpack properties and accumulation estimates from a combination of SAR and scatterometer measurements

Spatial and temporal variability in summer snow pack in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

Inference of velocity pattern from isochronous layers in firn, using an inverse method

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