1. A new digital elevation model of Antarctica derived from CryoSat-2 altimetry
- Author
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Thomas Slater, Andrew Shepherd, Malcolm McMillan, Alan Muir, Lin Gilbert, Anna E. Hogg, Hannes Konrad, and Tommaso Parrinello
- Abstract
We present a new Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the Antarctic ice sheet and ice shelves based on 2.5 × 108 observations recorded by the CryoSat-2 satellite radar altimeter between July 2010 and July 2016. The DEM is formed from spatio-temporal fits to elevation measurements accumulated within 1, 2 and 5 km grid cells, and is posted at the modal resolution of 1 km. Altogether, 94 % of the grounded ice sheet and 98 % of the floating ice shelves are observed, and the remaining grid cells North of 88° S are interpolated using ordinary kriging. The median and root mean square difference between the DEM and 2.3 × 107 airborne laser altimeter measurements acquired during NASA Operation IceBridge campaigns are −0.30 m and 13.50 m, respectively. The DEM uncertainty rises in regions of high slope – especially where elevation measurements were acquired in Low Resolution Mode – and, taking this into account, we estimate the average accuracy to be 9.5 m – a value that is comparable to or better than that of other models derived from satellite radar and laser altimetry.
- Published
- 2018