Surface roughness from in-situ measurements around Indian Antarctic stations

Surface roughness is an important parameter in deriving energy balance over the polar ice-sheets and glaciers. In Antarctica, roughness appears as snow patches and is affected by wind transport. It is also influenced by snowfall, snowdrifts, snowmelt, and snow grain size. In this paper, we derive surface roughness using a laser distometer. The roughness measurements were collected during the 32nd Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica 2013 (ISEA-32). After removal of all the possible error sources, it is found that around the Indian Antarctic station Bharati (69.41°S, 76.18°E), roughness is in the range of 0.7–1.2 cm. Snowfall and wind introduce fluctuations in surface roughness measurements. Measurements around Maitri (70.76°S, 11.73°E) showed that different ice surfaces have different values of roughness (0.6–1.4 cm), with the minimum roughness in the interior ice sheet surrounded by hummocks. Sastrugi patterns were also captured in the analysis. Backscattering signatures from RADARSAT-2 imagery were examined in conjunction with the roughness measurements.