Monitoramento da zona superficial de neve úmida da Península Antártica pelo uso de dados dos sensores SMMR e SSM/I

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2011

RESUMO

Special Sensor Microwave-Imager (SSM/I) EASE-grid data and classified ASAR wideswath (WS) images, covering the Antarctic Peninsula (AP), were processed and used in a Spectral Linear Mixing Model (SLMM) for a subpixel analysis of the Wet Snow Zone (WSZ) in SSM/I images. The components¿ proportions (fraction images) of the endmembers in the study area, namely WSZ, Dry Snow Zone and rock outcrops, were derived from classified ASAR images. These fraction images and co-registered SSM/I images (bands 19H, 19V, 37H and 37V), acquired on the same date, were used in the SLMM to estimate the unknown spectral signatures (i.e., brightness temperature on each SSM/I band). These spectral signatures were used to estimate WSZ fraction images, which were compared with the ASAR fraction images, by calculating the correlation coefficients. This work identified two spectral signatures that produced the most correlated data, and determined the WSZ fraction images correlations resulting from the use, in the SLMM, of the mean and median values of the most similar spectral signatures. The median values of these spectral signatures produced the most correlated WSZ fraction images, which had an average overall classification accuracy (AOCA) of 95.6% and 97.3% for spring and autumn fraction images, respectively (class range of 0.1), and an AOCA of 72.6% for summer fraction images (class range of 0.2). These median spectral signatures were then used in a SLMM to estimate accurately the WSZ intensity and its extension on the AP, by using calibrated SSM/I and SMMR (Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer) imageries, allowing a daily subpixel analysis of this glacier facie on the AP from 1978 to 2008. Based on the spatial analysis of the WSZ fraction images, it was observed that melt primarily takes place in late October and ends in late March, with peak on January 7th (about 172,237 km2 or 31,6% of the AP area). The WSZ median total area in summer was about 105,100 km2. Regression analysis over the 1978-1979 to 2007-2008 summers, revealed a negative interanual trend in surface melt of 330.854 km2. Nevertheless, this trend inference is not statistically significant, due to the high WSZ interanual variability. Extremely high melt occurred in the 1984-1985 (176,507.289 km2) and 1989-1990 (172,681.867 km2) summers, while extremely weak melt occurred in the 1993-1994 (26,392.208 km2) and 1981-1982 (23,244.341 km2) summers. The most persistent and intensive melt was observed on Larsen, Wilkins, George VI and Wordie ice shelves and it was related to the break-up and disintegration events that occurred on these glaciers in the last decades. Surface melting is closely related to the stability of the Antarctic glacial system and global sea level changes. It could be monitored for the whole Antarctica, by using the WSZ subpixel analysis in SMMR and SSM/I imageries proposed by this study.

ASSUNTO(S)

glaciologia glaciology antártica, península (antártica) geleiras glacier facies antarctic peninsula geologia marinha spectral linear mixing model

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