|
The image shows the change of sea ice in the Antarctic Sea in mid-winter (early August in Antarctica) of 2002 and 2003 acquired by AMSR-E. Dark blue and dark red zones around Antarctica indicate the sea ice extent; sea ice exists inside the zone. In the dark blue area, sea surface was covered with sea ice with no space in 2002, but in 2003 there is less sea ice and more sea surface can be seen. In the dark red area, there was less sea ice and the sea surface could be seen in 2002, but the sea surface is covered with sea ice with no space in 2003.
 |
EORC sent researchers to Palmer Station in the Antarctic Peninsula to gather data on the surrounding sea from mid-August to early September as part of the calibration and validation of AMSR-E. The photo shows the researchers measuring the thickness of sea ice and taking samples. The temperature was about 10°C higher than last year, there was less sea ice, and the sea surface could be seen, corresponding to the blue area around Palmer Station in the above image. (The blue area indicates that the radiance temperature is lower than last year.)
The image was generated from 6GHz vertical polarization data acquired by AMSR-E by transforming the data into radiance temperatures for 2002 and 2003. The radiance temperature is obtained by multiplying the object temperature by its emittance. The emittance of sea ice is close to 1, and that of sea water is about 0.3 to 0.6. Therefore, the radiance temperature for high temperature and less sea ice is low.
AMSR-E is a sister sensor of AMSR on ADEOS-II. It was developed by NASDA and is now on the EOS Aqua platform launched in May 2002. It made it possible to acquire images of all of Antarctia every day to monitor the long-term changes without regard to time and weather. |
