From November 16, 1999 to January 26, 2000, this dataset maps the spatial distribution of surface snow grain size across the Antarctic snow cover. It was created by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC) using data from the ATSR-2 instrument on the ESA's ERS-2 satellite. The analysis of approximately 5400 scenes provides mean grain size values, standard deviation, and observation density on a 16 km x 16 km grid for the 1999-2000 austral summer season.
Use Cases
- Model snow albedo and surface energy balance by analyzing the spatial distribution of grain size values across the 16 km grid.
- Study seasonal snow metamorphism by extracting time series of grain size values for individual grid cells from per-orbit data.
- Assess cloud contamination patterns by examining cells flagged using the variance test and minimum grain size criterion (less than 25 micron).
- Correct for topographic effects on reflectance using the ratio of the 0.87 and 1.6 micron channels to account for local surface slope variation.
- Validate snow property models by comparing derived grain size from TOA reflectance with ground-based or other satellite measurements.
Strengths
- Analysis of approximately 5400 satellite scenes (512 km x 512 km each) for data aggregation.
- Spatial data provided on a regular grid of 16 km x 16 km cells, with 256 1-km observations accumulated per cell to improve signal.
- Includes derived statistical measures: mean grain size, standard deviation, and density of observations for each grid cell.
- Covers a defined temporal interval from November 1999 to January 2000 for the austral summer season.
Limitations
- Temporal coverage is limited to a single austral summer season (approx. 2.5 months), not multi-year.
- Spatial resolution is coarse (16 km x 16 km cells), limiting analysis of fine-scale snow features.
- High cloud cover incidence in West Antarctica and coastal margins during the study period may reduce data availability in those regions.
Provenance
- Source
- Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC), derived from work under ASAC project 2200.
- Collection Method
- Grain size derived from inverting Top-Of-Atmosphere reflectance values from ATSR-2 satellite radiance in 0.87 and 1.6 micron channels, using a BRDF model for snow.
- Time Range
- November 16, 1999 to January 26, 2000
- Freshness
- Data last updated on January 26, 2000; it is a historical snapshot with no stated update frequency.
- Geography
- Antarctic snow cover