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Brigham Young University

Theses and Dissertations

2004

QuikSCAT

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A New Method For Melt Detection On Antarctic Ice-Shelves And Scatterometer Calibration Verification, Lukas Brad Kunz Jul 2004

A New Method For Melt Detection On Antarctic Ice-Shelves And Scatterometer Calibration Verification, Lukas Brad Kunz

Theses and Dissertations

Ku-band dual-polarization radar backscatter measurements from the SeaWinds on QuikScat scatterometer and microwave radiometer measurements from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) are used to determine periods of surface melt and freeze in the Antarctic ice-shelves. The normalized radar backscatter (sigma-0) and backscatter polarization ratio (PR) are used in the maximum likelihood estimation of the ice-state. This method is used to infer the daily ice-surface conditions for 25 selected study points located on the Ronne, Ross, Larsen, Fimbul, Amery, and Shackleton Ice-shelves. The temporal and spatial variations of the radar response are also observed for various neighborhood sizes surrounding each given …