Polar Remote Sensing: Volume I: Atmosphere and OceansThe polar regions, perhaps more than any other places on Earth, give the geophysical scientist a sense of exploration. This sensibility is genuine, for not only is high-latitude ?eldwork arduous with many locations seldom or never visited, but there remains much fundamental knowledge yet to be discovered about how the polar regions interact with the global climate system. The range of opportunities for new discovery becomes strikingly clear when we realize that the high latitudes are not one region but are really two vastly di?erent worlds. The high Arctic is a frozen ocean surrounded by land, and is home to fragile ecosystems and unique modes of human habitation. The Antarctic is a frozen continent without regular human habitation, covered by ice sheets taller than many mountain ranges and surrounded by the Earth’s most forbidding ocean. When we consider global change as applied to the Arctic, we discuss impacts to a region whose surface and lower atmospheric temperatures are near the triple point of water throughout much of the year. The most consistent signatures of climate warming have occurred at northern high latitudes (IPCC, 2001), and the potential impacts of a few degrees increase in surface temperature include a reduction in sea ice extent, a positive feedback to climate warming due to lowering of surface albedo, and changes to surface runo? that might a?ect the Arctic Ocean’s salinity and circulation. |
Other editions - View all
Polar Remote Sensing: Volume I: Atmosphere and Oceans Dan Lubin,Robert Massom No preview available - 2005 |
Polar Remote Sensing: Volume I: Atmosphere and Oceans Dan Lubin,Robert Massom No preview available - 2005 |
Polar Remote Sensing: Volume I: Atmosphere and Oceans Dan Lubin,Robert Massom No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
absorption aerosol albedo algorithm American Geophysical Union Antarctic sea ice Antarctica Arctic Ocean Arctic sea ice atmospheric AVHRR backscatter brightness temperature C-band calibration Cavalieri channels climate cloud Comiso coverage dataset derived detector distribution Drinkwater emissivity Envisat estimates fast ice Figure first-year ice floe flux frequency function Geophysical Research global ice concentration ice edge ice motion ice surface ice thickness ice types ice zone ICESat imagery instrument intensity Journal of Geophysical Kwok latitudes longwave maps Massom measurements melt meltponds Meteorological microwave MODIS multiyear ice NASA observations onboard open water optical depth orbit ozone passive-microwave pixel polar polarimetric polynya QuikSCAT radar Radarsat Radarsat-1 radiation radiative transfer Radiometer reflectance regions remote sensing retrieval SAR data satellite data ScanSAR scattering scatterometer seasonal sensor shortwave snow cover solar Southern Ocean spatial resolution spectral SSM/I stratospheric surface albedo surface temperature swath techniques variability water vapor wavelength Weddell Sea