LRSG's Antarctic research has been supported by the U.S. NSF and NASA and is the largest and most well-funded research direction in the LRSG. The LRSG group has participated seven Antarctic expeditions (2006, 2007, 2010 twice, 2016, and 2017 twice), and has collected rich geophysics, biochemistry, and ecosystem data which, together with prior datasets and from other research teams, will be used to validate the remotely sensed geophysics products and to develop better algorithms for retrieving geophysics parameters from remote sensing data.

Objective

The long-term goals of the LRSG group for the Antarctic study, supported by NSF, NASA, and UT San Antonio, are to:

  1. Determine Antarctic sea ice response to physical forcing using remote sensing.
  2. Determine how Antarctic sea ice is responding to global climate trends and compare remote sensing results with estimates from climate-modeling approaches.
  3. Provide remote sensing data on Antarctic sea ice, geoinformatics tools, and expertise to develop an integrated approach to the Antarctic Sea Ice System, including its physical, biological, and interactive components.