Inversion of the surface properties of ice sheets from satellite microwave data

Electromagnetic models are used as the basis for a least squares inversion technique to estimate the dry snow zone surface properties of the terrestrial ice sheets from active and passive microwave satellite data. Retrieved parameters include grain size, density, layer thickness, and accumulation ra...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing 2005-04, Vol.43 (4), p.743-752
Main Authors: Flach, J.D., Partington, K.C., Ruiz, C., Jeansou, E., Drinkwater, M.R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electromagnetic modeling
Geophysical measurements
Grain size
Ice sheets
Ice surface
Ice thickness
inversion
Least squares approximation
Meteorology
microwave
Microwave theory and techniques
Passive microwave remote sensing
radar
radar altimetry
radiometer
Remote sensing
Satellites
Snow
snow accumulation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Electromagnetic models are used as the basis for a least squares inversion technique to estimate the dry snow zone surface properties of the terrestrial ice sheets from active and passive microwave satellite data. Retrieved parameters include grain size, density, layer thickness, and accumulation rate. The prime motivation is to provide information of direct value to the Cryosat altimeter mission. The derived parameters can be used to convert from elevation change to snow mass change. They can also be used to predict geophysical retracking errors in altimeter data and to estimate the resulting uncertainty in the altimeter elevation measurement. With this technique, snow accumulation rate can also be estimated using passive microwave data. These data can then be compared to historical European Remote Sensing (ERS) satellite altimeter data in order to assess the impact of interannual variability in accumulation rate on the significance of rates of elevation change. The technique is in the preliminary stages of assessment, but is demonstrated using ERS-2 altimeter data in conjunction with spatio-temporally colocated Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) and QuikSCAT data. It is planned to apply the technique ultimately to Cryosat.
ISSN:0196-2892
1558-0644
DOI:10.1109/TGRS.2005.844287