Greenland snow ablation and accumulation observed using ERS and SSM/I data

Scientists have focused on delineating the various facies and determining the surface characteristics in each region of the Greenland ice sheet. This paper highlights research aimed at identifying the extent of summer snow melt and winter accumulation. First, the authors explain the trends seen in both active ERS1/2 (5.3 GHz, VV pol.) and passive SSM/I (37 GHz, V pol.) data and discuss identification of snow melt and accumulation. Next, they use active and passive radiative transfer (RT) models to justify their interpretation of the data. Their research serves as an extension of work by Wismann, et. al (1997) which focused on the active record only. The use of passive data greatly extends the observation history (back to the earliest space-borne microwave sensors), and provides opportunities for sensor fusion on more recent data sets.