Surface Mass Balance Assessment with Radar Technology in Dronning Maud Land to investigate the sea level mitigation potential of East Antarctica

• Applicant: Dr. Alexandra Zuhr
• Subject Area: Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 522419679

The East Antarctic Plateau plays a critical role in global sea level rise, but its potential to mitigate future sea-level rise remains unclear due to limited past observations and uncertain future projections. However, it is crucial to better understand this mitigation potential, as the East Antarctic Ice Sheet stores enormous amounts of water and future projections of East Antarctica's contribution to sea-level rise are often contradictory when comparing results from different studies. Previous observations are limited in their spatial and temporal coverage and are based on data sets that were recorded using different measurement methods. Each dataset, therefore, has different uncertainties that are often not considered. SMART DML addresses these challenges by investigating the surface mass balance with a decadal to multi-decadal resolution from the 18th century to today for an area in Dronning Maud Land on the East Antarctic Plateau. The project uses an airborne ultra-wideband microwave radar system to obtain high-resolution radar data over spatial scales of several 1000s of kilometers. Using advanced statistical methods, spatio-temporal fields of the past surface mass balance will be generated to quantify spatial and temporal changes. This research will help to deepen our understanding of the contribution of East Antarctica to sea level rise, its mitigation potential and improve future sea level projections.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1158: Infrastructure area - Antarctic Research with Comparative Investigations in Arctic Sea Ice Areas
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Reinhard Drews; Professor Dr. Olaf Eisen