NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Snow Depth and Ice Thickness Measurements From the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas Collected During the AMSR-Ice03 CampaignIn March 2003, a field validation campaign was conducted on the sea ice near Barrow, AK. The goal of this campaign was to produce an extensive dataset of sea ice thickness and snow properties (depth and stratigraphy) against which remote sensing products collected by aircraft and satellite could be compared. Chief among these were products from the Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR) flown aboard a NASA P-3B aircraft and the Aqua Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). The data were collected in four field areas: three on the coastal sea ice near Barrow, AK, and the fourth out on the open ice pack 175 km northeast of Barrow. The snow depth ranged from 9.4-20.8 cm in coastal areas (n = 9881 for three areas) with the thinnest snow on ice that had formed late in the winter. Out in the main pack ice, the snow was 20.6 cm deep (n = 1906). The ice in all four areas ranged from 138-219 cm thick (n = 1952), with the lower value again where the ice had formed late in the winter. Snow layer and grain characteristics observed in 118 snow pits indicated that 44% of observed snow layers were depth hoar; 46% were wind slab. Snow and ice measurements were keyed to photomosaics produced from low-altitude vertical aerial photographs. Using these, and a distinctive three-way relationship between ice roughness, snow surface characteristics, and snow depth, strip maps of snow depth, each about 2 km wide, were produced bracketing the traverse lines. These maps contain an unprecedented level of snow depth detail against which to compare remote sensing products. The maps are used in other papers in this special issue to examine the retrieval of snow properties from the PSR and AMSR-E sensors.
Document ID
20070021390
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Sturm, M.
(Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab. Fort Wainright, AK, United States)
Holmgren, J.
(Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab. Fort Wainright, AK, United States)
Maslanik, J. A.
(Colorado Univ. Boulder, CO, United States)
Perovich, D. K.
(Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab. Hanover, NH, United States)
Richter-Menge, J.
(Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab. Hanover, NH, United States)
Stroeve, J. C.
(Colorado Univ. Boulder, CO, United States)
Markus, T.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Heinrichs, J. F.
(Fort Hays State Univ. Fort Hays, KY, United States)
Tape, K.
(Alaska Univ. Fairbanks, AK, United States)
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
November 1, 2006
Publication Information
Publication: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Volume: 44
Issue: 11
ISSN: 0196-2892
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available