Ice Sheet Surface and Subsurface Melt Water Discrimination Using Multi‐Frequency Microwave Radiometry

Colliander, Andreas; Mousavi, Mohammad; Marshall, Shawn; Samimi, Samira; Kimball, John S.; Miller, Julie Z.; Johnson, Joel; Burgin, Mariko

doi:10.1029/2021GL096599

i

Ice Sheet Surface and Subsurface Melt Water Discrimination Using Multi‐Frequency Microwave Radiometry

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2022
By Colliander, Andreas ; Mousavi, Mohammad ; Marshall, Shawn ; ...

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Journal Title:

Geophysical Research Letters
Personal Author:

Colliander, Andreas ; Mousavi, Mohammad ; Marshall, Shawn ; Samimi, Samira ; Kimball, John S. ; Miller, Julie Z. ; Johnson, Joel ; Burgin, Mariko
NOAA Program & Office:

CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
Description:

For understanding englacial hydrology and its impact on ice sheet mass balance, observations of the liquid water content (LWC) within the ice sheets are needed. We combined 1.4–10.7 GHz passive microwave measurements with traditional 18.7–36.5 GHz measurements to detect subsurface LWC. In situ measurements from the DYE-2 experiment site in Greenland and a modeled LWC at this site were used to calibrate and validate the method. Our analysis showed sensitivity of the lower microwave frequencies to LWC in surface and subsurface layers down to at least 2 m, enabling detection of seasonal subsurface LWC and its refreezing. A simplified retrieval detected a delayed refreezing of subsurface LWC following surface freezing, while also capturing total seasonal meltwater production. These advancements open the door to detection of subsurface meltwater and refreezing twice a day at pan-Greenland scale, thereby enabling improved estimates of ice sheet contributions to global sea level rise.
Keywords:

General Earth And Planetary Sciences Geophysics General Earth And Planetary Sciences General Earth And Planetary Sciences
Source:

Geophysical Research Letters, 49(4)
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL096599
ISSN:

0094-8276 ; 1944-8007
Format:

PDF
Publisher:

American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Document Type:

Journal Article
License:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Rights Information:

CC BY-NC
Compliance:

Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:a302f08aec8dd8fc6fffc4d4af09290f40eee0d1da875b8fdd3172c103921792
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/51882/noaa_51882_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 1.51 MB ]

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