Spatial distribution of snow accumulation and snowpack properties in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica: Observational techniques and methods for surface mass-balance assessments of polar ice sheets

Abstract

Primary objective of this thesis is the investigation of the spatial distribution of snow accumulation and its influencing factors in Dronning Maud Land (DML), Antarctica, by using a combination of data from different observation techniques. Field measurements of surface mass balance are only sparsely available for most parts of the Antarctic ice sheet. The main focus of this study is on exploring the potential of radar satellite imagery for a spatially continuous assessment of accumulation patterns in high resolution. For this, radar backscattering properties of the Antarctic snowpack are analysed by means of low-resolution C- and Ku-band scatterometer data to establish links between returned radar signals and snow morphology. As a result, a continent-wide snowpack classification is presented, which shows similar patterns for both frequencies. Furthermore, the narrow percolation zone at the margin of the ice sheet could be distinguished from the interior dry-snow zone. This study contributes to a better understanding of the complexity of snow accumulation in the Antarctic.