Snow layering effects on L-band passive measurements at Dome C - Antarctica

The analysis of microwave measurements collected by ground-based radiometers at Dome C, Antarctica, during the Domex experiments reveals that snow layering has a significant impact on the microwave emission of snow even at such low frequency. In order to better understand the relationships between the measured brightness temperature and the ice sheet parameters acquired data has been simulated by using an electromagnetic model and a Monte Carlo analysis in order to consider the natural variability of snow parameters. The e.m. model (Dense Medium Radiative Transfer theory under Quasi Cristalline Apporximation with Coherent potentials in multilayers version) was used to fit the angular trend of microwave observations collected at C- and L-band at Concordia Station. The analysis permitted to identify the variability in the snow density vertical profile as a major factor in determining the microwave signature of the snow emission. To further assess the impact of density profile, also the time-series of the sun microwave radiation reflected by the snowpack was simulated. This analysis pointed out that the coherent interference of the sun radiation among the layers can explain the particular sun signature found in Domex dataset.