• DocumentCode
    70444
  • Title

    Airborne L-Band Radiometer Mapping of the Dome-C Area in Antarctica

  • Author

    Skou, Niels ; Kristensen, Steen Savstrup ; Sobjaerg, Sten Schmidl ; Balling, Jan E.

  • Author_Institution
    Nat. Space Inst., Tech. Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
  • Volume
    8
  • Issue
    7
  • fYear
    2015
  • fDate
    Jul-15
  • Firstpage
    3656
  • Lastpage
    3664
  • Abstract
    A 350 km × 350 km area near the Concordia station on the high plateau of Dome-C in Antarctica has been mapped by an airborne L-band radiometer system. The area was expected to display a rather uniform brightness temperature (TB) close to the yearly mean temperature-well suited for calibration checks for spaceborne instruments like SMOS, Aquarius, and SMAP. The measured TBs show unexpected variations like 8-K variation over 240 km on an east-west profile through Concordia, and in certain local cases, a slope of about 0.7 K/km. Comparing the measured TB map with bottom topography reveals a convincing correlation. Simulations show that variations in bedrock topography can indeed modulate the TB appropriately to explain the observed variations. It is concluded that use of the Dome-C area for calibration check of spaceborne radiometers is indeed viable, but with caution-especially when comparing instruments with different spatial resolutions.
  • Keywords
    geophysical equipment; geophysical techniques; radiometers; remote sensing; Antarctica; Concordia station; Dome-C area; Dome-C plateau; airborne L-band radiometer mapping; airborne L-band radiometer system; bedrock topography; east-west profile; mean temperature; spaceborne instruments; spaceborne radiometers; uniform brightness temperature; Aircraft; Antarctica; Antennas; Calibration; L-band; Radiometry; Sun; Antarctica; L-band; radiometer;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Journal_Title
    Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, IEEE Journal of
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • ISSN
    1939-1404
  • Type

    jour

  • DOI
    10.1109/JSTARS.2015.2425039
  • Filename
    7110294