Assessment of Cryospheric Parameters Over the Himalaya and Antarctic Regions using SCATSAT-1 Enhanced Resolution Data

Antarctica is the focus of scientific studies considering the largest reservoir of terrestrial water in the form of ice and doubling of ice area during winter due to sea-ice growth. The third pole – Himalaya is equally important due to the large extent of snow and ice cover outside the polar regions, which is a major source of water for the Asian countries. At present, the Ku-band scatterometer observing global cryosphere is the SCATSAT-1 launched by India. This article describes the study carried out on different cryospheric parameters using high-resolution (~2.2 km) scatterometer data in the Antarctica and Himalaya. Impact of seasonal variations in snow/ice and ice calving on the backscatter over Antarctica is discussed in detail. A procedure developed for the estimation of sea-ice extent, which yielded overall accuracy of 89%, has been presented and successfully applied for daily monitoring of the Antarctic ice extent for 2017. Surface melting using backscatter and brightness temperature data has been discussed and the contrast between large-sized and small-sized Antarctic ice shelves during the austral summer period of summer 2017–18 is highlighted. The higher average surface melt observed around majority of east Antarctic ice shelves, particularly near the Indian station ‘Maitri’, is of particular interest. Typical surface melting patterns observed over the third largest Antarctic ice shelf, Amery, are discussed in detail. Over northwest Himalaya, derived changes in snow water equivalent (ΔSWE) shows a good correlation between observed and calculated SWE variations. The present study demonstrates that simultaneous availability of high-resolution brightness temperature and backscatter data from SCATSAT-1 provides a unique opportunity to study the polar and mountain cryosphere.