Chinese Journal of Polar Research

ADVANCES IN POLAR SCIENCE ›› 2009, Vol. 20 ›› Issue (1-English): 64-71.

• Contents • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Monitoring snow-cover area change in Antarctic coastline region using MODIS product data

 Chen Jing1,2,3, Li Rendong1, Ye Ming1,2 and Lu Yang1   

  1. 1 Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430077, China;
    2 Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
    3 Chongqin Geomatics Center, China
  • Online:1959-03-30 Published:1959-03-30
  • Contact: Chen Jing

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Abstract:

Based on MODIS snow products, this article studied the changes of snow cover area during 2003—2006 along the coastline of the Antarctic, and 18 typical regions were chosen for further analysis. The result showed that the change of snow cover area was in a fluctuant downward trend as a whole, and more fluctuated obviously in warm season than in cold season. Intemporal scale: for the season cycle, the snow cover extent increased rapidly in cold season (Apr-Oct) , while the performance in warm season (Nov-Mar) was not exactly the same during the four years, the snow cover extent decreased in the first and then increased in 2004 and 2006, however, increased firstly and then decreased but reduced as a whole in 2005, for the interannual cycle, snow cover extent was the largest in 2003, but reached to the lowest level in 2004, and then increased gradually in 2005 and 2006, whereas, it declined with fluctuant as a whole. In spatial scale, changesmainly centralized along the coastline, moreover, it wasmore remarkable in theWest Antarctic than in the East Antarctic, especially in the Antarctic Peninsula region.

Key words: MODIS, snow cover, Antarctic coast, NSIDC