{"id":7,"date":"2017-06-12T09:09:18","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T09:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.issibern.ch\/teams\/antarcticsnow\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2017-06-12T09:09:18","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T09:09:18","slug":"sample-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.issibern.ch\/teams\/antarcticsnow\/","title":{"rendered":"Satellite-derived estimates of Antarctic snow- and ice-thickness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recent changes in the polar cryosphere have been dramatic, and include the well known reduction of the Arctic sea-ice cover during the annual ice mimimum (in late boreal summer). Furthermore the projected climate change (e.g., AMAP [2009]) is likely to result in a volume loss of both Arctic and Antarctic sea-ice. <\/span>Sea-ice volume can be quantified as the product of sea-ice covered area and thickness. In the Arctic, thinning of the sea ice and a reduction in its summer extent and thus a reduction in sea-ice volume have been well documented [Perovich, 2011; Kwok et al., 2009] and sustained themselves up to 2016. In the Antarctic, however and albeit with strong regional variability, the overall sea-ice area has expanded slightly over the past few decade, just to collapse in 2016, when the Antarctic winter sea-ice extent was well below the 1980 \u2013 2010 mean [NOAA, 2017]. <\/span><\/p>\n

Project objectives & goals<\/strong><\/p>\n

The primary objective of this proposal is to identify and proto-type a processing chain to derive Antarctic sea-ice thickness from a range of remotely-sensed observations, in order<\/span> to understan its spatial-temporal characteristics in response to change<\/span> and variability in external forcing. While areal extent of sea ice is routinely monitored by satellite passive microwave sensors,<\/span> deriving sea-ice (or snow) thickness from remote observation presents a matter of urgency in informing sea ice and climate research. Both sea-ice areal extent and thickness exhibit high<\/span> spatio-temporal variability, as they are affected by complex interactions involving dynamic and thermodynamic processes across a wide range of spatial-temporal scales.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to address this critical knowledge gap, the proposed project will address the following objectives:<\/p>\n