SEASONAL BEHAVIOR OF THE SURFACE FEATURES IN ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA, BY MEANS ASTER' LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE DATA

Luiz Fernando Whitaker Kitajima,Gustavo Macedo De Mello Baptista

doi:10.5935/1984-2295.20140013

Luiz Fernando Whitaker Kitajima, Gustavo Macedo De Mello Baptista

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5935/1984-2295.20140013

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Abstract

ASTER images from Antarctica taken between 2000 and 2003 in the thermal infrared imaging sensor showed interesting relationship between the land surface temperatures and the surface features. The studied area is the Ross Island, the Ross Ice Shelf at the south and the Antarctic Ocean at the north. The Ross Ice Shelf and icebergs showed to have the lowest surface temperatures, while the sea ice has higher surface temperatures. The open sea has the highest temperatures. The temperature differences are well defined and sharpen, but they are less different on the early and mid summer and higher on spring and late summer. On land, there is a more irregular temperature pattern. This is due to the relief effects as well the presence of volcanic activity on Mount Erebus, with warm areas possibly heated by the volcanic activity. The surface temperature differences allow study the distribution of ice and sea on the region as well the behavior of the volcanic activity on Mt. Erebus.

Highlights

The discussion about the effects of the so-called global warming, or the intensifying heat of Earth due to the greenhouse effect, caused by the increased emission of gases like CO2, CH4 and CFCs, led to an increased interest about means of measure and survey all the possible changes on the several terrestrial environments.A possible consequence of rising global average temperatures is an accelerated melting of the polar ice caps, with serious consequences like flooding of the coastal zones and cities (Oppenheimer 1998)
The ASTER images and the respective temperature profiles are presented on Figures 2 and 3
It was observed that images taken in October in the NE area of Ross island that temperature varied in average -23° C in the warmest areas to -41° C in the coldest areas, while ice shelf / sea profiles in SW Ross Island indicated temperature variations of about -42° C to -22° C

Summary

Introduction

The discussion about the effects of the so-called global warming, or the intensifying heat of Earth due to the greenhouse effect, caused by the increased emission of gases like CO2, CH4 and CFCs (mainly products of human activity), led to an increased interest about means of measure and survey all the possible changes on the several terrestrial environments.A possible consequence of rising global average temperatures is an accelerated melting of the polar ice caps, with serious consequences like flooding of the coastal zones and cities (Oppenheimer 1998). The ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) is a sensor that works with the visible, near, shortwave and thermal infrared part of the spectra and is able to produce stereoscopic images. This stereoscopic imaging ability had been exploited for glacier changes analysis, while the infrared imagers have been used for surface temperature analysis (Kargel et al on press). Its images of the Antarctic ice (Ross Island region) had been selected for a study whose objective, the objective of this paper, is relating the land surface temperature behavior and relate it to the ice thickness It is not possible determine the specific ice thickness only by the images, but is possible to relate to the more general ice cover types

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