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Mapping the Extent and Duration of Surface Melting On Ice Sheets and Shelves (Abstract)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

H.Jay Zwally
H.Jay Zwally*
Affiliation:
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, U.S.A.
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Abstract

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Information
Annals of Glaciology , Volume 8 , 1986 , pp. 209
Copyright
Copyright © International Glaciological Society 1986

Previous studies have shown that the microwave brightness temperature (TB) of snow and firn increases markedly as the surface becomes wet (e.g. Stiles and Ulaby, 1980; and Zwally and Gloersen, 1977). For example, the TB at station Dye II (66.5N, 46.2W), on the Greenland ice sheet, as observed by the Nimbus-5 microwave radiometer, increases abruptly from 170 K to 245 K. during the summer melt period (Zwally, 1984). Now the Nimbus-5 microwave data are analysed, using TB change criteria to map the extent and duration of summer melting of the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet and several Antarctic ice shelves during 1973-1976. Inter-annual variations in the melt pattern are notable and several events are described in which the increased TB during the month of January outlines the ice streams flowing from West Antarctica into the Ross Ice Shelf.