2003-2004 USAP Field Season

Oceans & Climate

Dr. Bernhard Lettau Program Manager

O-309-L	NSF/OPP NASA award
Station: R/V Laurence M. Gould
RPSC POC: Karl Newyear
Research Site(s): Bellingshausen Sea, R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer
Dates in Antarctica: Mid August to early September

AMSR sea ice validation during the R/V Laurence M. Gould's traverse to Antarctica

	Dr. Konrad Steffen University of Colorado Boulder CIRES konrad.steffen@colorado.edu http://cires.colorado.edu/

Ice thickness experiment using the EM31 electromagnetic probe on floating first year ice in the Bellinghausen Sea with the R/V Laurence M. Gould in background. Graduate students Nicolas Cullen and Russell Huff wear special waterproof clothing and a Zodiac boat (not seen) is nearby. Photo by Konrad Steffen.

Deploying Team Members:

Nicolas Cullen . Russel Huff . Masahige Nakayama . Konrad Steffen

Research Objectives: We intend to make passive microwave measurements onboard the Laurence M. Gould while enroute from Puente Arenas, Chile, to Antarctica in August and September 2003. We will use passive microwave radiometers to monitor the sea-ice surface at four frequencies [11.4 gigahertz (GHz), 21 GHz, 35 GHz, and 94 GHz] at horizontal vertical polarizations. The brightness temperatures can then be related to aircraft overflight measurements and to AMSR-E [Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer EOS (Earth Observing System)] satellite measurements. We will also + Make meteorological measurements of temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity, and pressure; + Make latent and sensible heat flux measurements with eddy-correlation instruments to derive the heat fluxes over various types of ice; + Examine short- and long-wave radiation components of incoming and outgoing fluxes; + Gather cloud statistics with an all-sky camera with hemispheric coverage; + Make optical path-length measurements; + Make sea and ice-surface temperature profile measurements along the ship’s transect; + Make in situ ice thickness and salinity profile measurements of various ice types characteristic of regions along the ship’s transect; + Analyze snow layers over sea ice with ground-penetrating radar; + Make spectral reflectance measurements of different snow and ice types for the 300- to 2,500-nanometer (nm) range with 1- to 3-nm spectral resolution. We also plan to launch about 50 radiosonde balloons to measure the temperature, wind speed and direction, and humidity profile from the surface of the water to about 10 kilometers above it.