Publication Date:
2017-10-17
Description:
Winter balance is an important metric for assessing the change on glaciers and ice caps, yet
measuring it using ground-based techniques can be challenging. We use the European Space Agency
prototype Airborne SAR/Interferometric Radar Altimeter System (ASIRAS) to extract snow depths from
the received altimeter waveforms over Austfonna ice cap, Svalbard. Additionally, we attempt to
distinguish the long-term firn area from other glacier facies. We validate our results using snow depth
and glacier facies characterizations determined from ground-based radar profiles, snow pits and a multi-
look satellite synthetic aperture radar image. We show that the depth of the winter snowpack can be
extracted from the altimeter data over most of the accumulation zone, comprising wet snow zone and a
superimposed ice zone. The method struggles at lower elevations where internal reflections within the
winter snowpack are strong and the winter snow depth is less than
1m. We use the abruptness of the
reflection from the last summer surface (LSS) to attempt to distinguish glacier facies. While there is a
general correlation between LSS abruptness and glacier facies, we do not find a relationship that
warrants a distinct classification based on ASIRAS waveforms alone.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Article
,
isiRev
