Characteristics of the snow cover in East and West Antarctica and their 20-year trends retrieved from satellite remote sensing data

¹ Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 220072 Minsk, Belarus
² Tubitak Marmara Research Center, Polar Research Institute, 41470 Kocaeli, Turkey
³ Department of Geomatics Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, 34467 İstanbul, Turkey
⁴ Department of Geomatics Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, 34349 Istanbul, Turkey
⁵ Department of Geomatics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, 80000 Osmaniye, Turkey

Academic Editor: Riccardo Buccolieri

Published: 06 November 2023 by MDPI in The 5th International Electronic Conference on Remote Sensing session Remote sensing applications

https://doi.org/10.3390/ECRS2023-15862

Abstract:

The aim of the work was to make a comparative analysis of the state of the snow surface in East and West Antarctica, including changes in snow cover characteristics during the past two decades. To do so, we have developed the ASAR (for Antarctic Snow Albedo Retriever) algorithm, which processes satellite data and retrieves an effective snow grain size and a fraction of rocks not covered by snow. The algorithm has been used to process the MODIS data throughout the entire period of its operation (up to now). We have chosen several test areas (30 x 30 km² approximately) to study the state of the snow cover on Enderby Land (East Antarctica), on the coast of the Ross Sea (the Transantarctic Mountains), and the Antarctic Peninsula (West Antarctica). As a result, we have plotted and analyzed time series of the effective snow grain size and rock fraction in these areas across the last 20 years. The study of snow cover trends on a continental scale can contribute to the investigation of environmental changes in Antarctica.

Keywords: Snow cover; Remote Sensing; East and West Antarctica

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