Surface Melting Drives Fluctuations in Airborne Radar Penetration in West Central Greenland

Inès Otosaka; Andrew Shepherd; Tânia G. D. Casal; Alex Coccia; Malcolm Davidson; Alessandro Di Bella; Xavier Fettweis; René Forsberg; Veit Helm; Anna E. Hogg; Sine Hvidegaard; Adriano Lemos; Karlus Macedo; Peter Kuipers Munneke; Tommaso Parrinello; Sebastian B. Simonsen; Henriette Skourup; Louise Sandberg Sørensen

doi:10.1029/2020GL088293

Surface Melting Drives Fluctuations in Airborne Radar Penetration in West Central Greenland

Inès Otosaka^*, Andrew Shepherd, Tânia G. D. Casal, Alex Coccia, Malcolm Davidson, Alessandro Di Bella, Xavier Fettweis, René Forsberg, Veit Helm, Anna E. Hogg, Sine Hvidegaard, Adriano Lemos, Karlus Macedo, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Tommaso Parrinello, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Henriette Skourup, Louise Sandberg Sørensen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

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Abstract

Greenland Ice Sheet surface melting has increased since the 1990s, affecting the rheology and scattering properties of the near‐surface firn. We combine firn cores and modelled firn densities with seven years of CryoVEx airborne Ku‐band (13.5 GHz) radar profiles to quantify the impact of melting on microwave radar penetration in West‐Central Greenland. Although annual layers are present in the Ku‐band radar profiles to depths up to 15 m below the ice sheet surface, fluctuations in summer melting strongly affect the degree of radar penetration. The extreme melting in 2012, for example, caused an abrupt 6.2 ± 2.4 m decrease in Ku‐band radar penetration. Nevertheless, retracking the radar echoes mitigates this effect, producing surface heights that agree to within 13.9 cm of coincident airborne laser measurements. We also examine two years of Ka‐band (34.5 GHz) airborne radar data and show that the degree of penetration is half that of coincident Ku‐band.

Original language	English
Article number	e2020GL088293
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	47
Issue number	17
Number of pages	9
ISSN	0094-8276
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088293
Publication status	Published - 2020

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Otosaka, I., Shepherd, A., Casal, T. G. D., Coccia, A., Davidson, M., Di Bella, A., Fettweis, X., Forsberg, R., Helm, V., Hogg, A. E., Hvidegaard, S., Lemos, A., Macedo, K., Kuipers Munneke, P., Parrinello, T., Simonsen, S. B., Skourup, H., & Sørensen, L. S. (2020). Surface Melting Drives Fluctuations in Airborne Radar Penetration in West Central Greenland. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(17), [e2020GL088293]. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088293

Otosaka, Inès ; Shepherd, Andrew ; Casal, Tânia G. D. ; Coccia, Alex ; Davidson, Malcolm ; Di Bella, Alessandro ; Fettweis, Xavier ; Forsberg, René ; Helm, Veit ; Hogg, Anna E. ; Hvidegaard, Sine ; Lemos, Adriano ; Macedo, Karlus ; Kuipers Munneke, Peter ; Parrinello, Tommaso ; Simonsen, Sebastian B. ; Skourup, Henriette ; Sørensen, Louise Sandberg. / Surface Melting Drives Fluctuations in Airborne Radar Penetration in West Central Greenland. In: Geophysical Research Letters. 2020 ; Vol. 47, No. 17.

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title = "Surface Melting Drives Fluctuations in Airborne Radar Penetration in West Central Greenland",

abstract = "Greenland Ice Sheet surface melting has increased since the 1990s, affecting the rheology and scattering properties of the near‐surface firn. We combine firn cores and modelled firn densities with seven years of CryoVEx airborne Ku‐band (13.5 GHz) radar profiles to quantify the impact of melting on microwave radar penetration in West‐Central Greenland. Although annual layers are present in the Ku‐band radar profiles to depths up to 15 m below the ice sheet surface, fluctuations in summer melting strongly affect the degree of radar penetration. The extreme melting in 2012, for example, caused an abrupt 6.2 ± 2.4 m decrease in Ku‐band radar penetration. Nevertheless, retracking the radar echoes mitigates this effect, producing surface heights that agree to within 13.9 cm of coincident airborne laser measurements. We also examine two years of Ka‐band (34.5 GHz) airborne radar data and show that the degree of penetration is half that of coincident Ku‐band.",

author = "In{\`e}s Otosaka and Andrew Shepherd and Casal, {T{\^a}nia G. D.} and Alex Coccia and Malcolm Davidson and {Di Bella}, Alessandro and Xavier Fettweis and Ren{\'e} Forsberg and Veit Helm and Hogg, {Anna E.} and Sine Hvidegaard and Adriano Lemos and Karlus Macedo and {Kuipers Munneke}, Peter and Tommaso Parrinello and Simonsen, {Sebastian B.} and Henriette Skourup and S{\o}rensen, {Louise Sandberg}",

note = "This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.",

year = "2020",

doi = "10.1029/2020GL088293",

language = "English",

volume = "47",

journal = "Geophysical Research Letters",

issn = "0094-8276",

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Otosaka, I, Shepherd, A, Casal, TGD, Coccia, A, Davidson, M, Di Bella, A, Fettweis, X, Forsberg, R, Helm, V, Hogg, AE, Hvidegaard, S, Lemos, A, Macedo, K, Kuipers Munneke, P, Parrinello, T, Simonsen, SB , Skourup, H & Sørensen, LS 2020, 'Surface Melting Drives Fluctuations in Airborne Radar Penetration in West Central Greenland', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 47, no. 17, e2020GL088293. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088293

Surface Melting Drives Fluctuations in Airborne Radar Penetration in West Central Greenland. / Otosaka, Inès; Shepherd, Andrew; Casal, Tânia G. D.; Coccia, Alex; Davidson, Malcolm; Di Bella, Alessandro; Fettweis, Xavier; Forsberg, René; Helm, Veit; Hogg, Anna E.; Hvidegaard, Sine; Lemos, Adriano; Macedo, Karlus; Kuipers Munneke, Peter; Parrinello, Tommaso; Simonsen, Sebastian B.; Skourup, Henriette ; Sørensen, Louise Sandberg.

In: Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 47, No. 17, e2020GL088293, 2020.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

TY - JOUR

T1 - Surface Melting Drives Fluctuations in Airborne Radar Penetration in West Central Greenland

AU - Otosaka, Inès

AU - Shepherd, Andrew

AU - Casal, Tânia G. D.

AU - Coccia, Alex

AU - Davidson, Malcolm

AU - Di Bella, Alessandro

AU - Fettweis, Xavier

AU - Forsberg, René

AU - Helm, Veit

AU - Hogg, Anna E.

AU - Hvidegaard, Sine

AU - Lemos, Adriano

AU - Macedo, Karlus

AU - Kuipers Munneke, Peter

AU - Parrinello, Tommaso

AU - Simonsen, Sebastian B.

AU - Skourup, Henriette

AU - Sørensen, Louise Sandberg

N1 - This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Greenland Ice Sheet surface melting has increased since the 1990s, affecting the rheology and scattering properties of the near‐surface firn. We combine firn cores and modelled firn densities with seven years of CryoVEx airborne Ku‐band (13.5 GHz) radar profiles to quantify the impact of melting on microwave radar penetration in West‐Central Greenland. Although annual layers are present in the Ku‐band radar profiles to depths up to 15 m below the ice sheet surface, fluctuations in summer melting strongly affect the degree of radar penetration. The extreme melting in 2012, for example, caused an abrupt 6.2 ± 2.4 m decrease in Ku‐band radar penetration. Nevertheless, retracking the radar echoes mitigates this effect, producing surface heights that agree to within 13.9 cm of coincident airborne laser measurements. We also examine two years of Ka‐band (34.5 GHz) airborne radar data and show that the degree of penetration is half that of coincident Ku‐band.

AB - Greenland Ice Sheet surface melting has increased since the 1990s, affecting the rheology and scattering properties of the near‐surface firn. We combine firn cores and modelled firn densities with seven years of CryoVEx airborne Ku‐band (13.5 GHz) radar profiles to quantify the impact of melting on microwave radar penetration in West‐Central Greenland. Although annual layers are present in the Ku‐band radar profiles to depths up to 15 m below the ice sheet surface, fluctuations in summer melting strongly affect the degree of radar penetration. The extreme melting in 2012, for example, caused an abrupt 6.2 ± 2.4 m decrease in Ku‐band radar penetration. Nevertheless, retracking the radar echoes mitigates this effect, producing surface heights that agree to within 13.9 cm of coincident airborne laser measurements. We also examine two years of Ka‐band (34.5 GHz) airborne radar data and show that the degree of penetration is half that of coincident Ku‐band.

U2 - 10.1029/2020GL088293

DO - 10.1029/2020GL088293

M3 - Journal article

VL - 47

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

SN - 0094-8276

IS - 17

M1 - e2020GL088293

ER -