HR: 14:25h
AN: C23B-04 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Snow thickness over Antarctic sea ice from in situ measurements, aircraft and satellite data
AU: * Worby, A
EM: a.worby@utas.edu.au
AF: Australian Antarctic Division and Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, Private Bag 80 University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tas 7001, Australia
AB: The snow cover on sea ice is an important climate variable that affects the surface albedo, ocean-atmosphere heat flux, and fresh water flux to the ocean. Its thickness and distribution are affected by precipitation, wind, ice topography and the formation of snow ice resulting from snow loading and flooding. The latter is a process unique to the Antarctic that complicates efforts to measure or monitor the snow cover thickness on Antarctic sea ice. Recent results from Antarctica suggests that widespread flooding can occur over relatively short times scales, affecting surface roughness and passive microwave retrievals of snow thickness. In situ snow thickness measurements coupled with textural analysis of aerial photography indicate values for snow thickness over rough sea ice that are approximately 2-3 times larger than the AMSR-E snow thickness product over the same region. Recent data from sled and aircraft-based radar over Antarctic sea ice will also be presented.
DE: 1827 Glaciology (0736, 0776, 1863)
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (0736, 0738, 0776, 1827)
DE: 4540 Ice mechanics and air/sea/ice exchange processes (0700, 0750, 0752, 0754)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting