Multi-frequency microwave emission of the East Antarctic Plateau

In recent years there is growing interest, on the part of the remote sensing community, in using the Antarctic area for calibrating and validating data of the low-frequency satellite-borne microwave radiometers. In particular, the East Antarctic Plateau appears to be suited for this purpose. The reason of this interest lies in the size, structure, spatial homogeneity and thermal stability of this area. This is particularly interesting for low-frequency microwave radiometers since, due to the low extinction of dry snow, the upper ice sheet layer is almost transparent and the brightness temperature variability is therefore extremely small. In preparation for the November 2009 launch of the ESA's SMOS satellite, an experiment called DOMEX, which included radiometric L-band measurements was started in the Austral summer 2009. Data acquired in the campaign confirmed the temporal stability of the site. Comparison between ground and satellite data at L-band are also presented here. Moreover multi-frequency analysis of data collected over this area is performed by using SMOS and AMSR-E data.