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Science 3 December 1993:
Vol. 262. no. 5139, pp. 1530 - 1534
DOI: 10.1126/science.262.5139.1530
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Articles

Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Properties and Ice Dynamics from ERS-1 SAR Imagery

Mark Fahnestock 1, Robert Bindschadler 1, Ron Kwok 2, and Ken Jezek 3

1 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center (NASN/GSFC), Greenbelt, MD 20771
2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109
3 Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210

C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery from the European Space Agency's ERS-1 satellite reveals the basic zonation of the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The zones have backscatter signatures related to the structure of the snowpack, which varies with the balance of accumulation and melt at various elevations. The boundaries of zones can be accurately located with the use of this high-resolution imagery. The images also reveal a large flow feature in northeast Greenland that is similar to ice streams in Antarctica and may play a major role in the discharge of ice from the ice sheet.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Changes in glacier extent on north Novaya Zemlya in the twentieth century.
J. Zeeberg and S. L. Forman (2001)
The Holocene 11, 161-175
   Abstract »    PDF »
Widespread Complex Flow in the Interior of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
J. L. Bamber, D. G. Vaughan, and I. Joughin (2000)
Science 287, 1248-1250
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Probing Ice Sheets with Imaging Radar.
R. K. Raney and R. K. Raney (1993)
Science 262, 1521-1522
   PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)