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https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2900
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2900
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Preprints
06 Aug 2025
 | 06 Aug 2025
Status: this preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).

Brief communication: Estimating Antarctic surface melt rates using passive microwave data calibrated with weather station observations

Valeria Di Biase, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Bert Wouters, Michiel R. van den Broeke, and Maurice van Tiggelen

Abstract. We present a dataset of Antarctic annual surface melt rates (6.25 km resolution, 2012–2021) from 19 GHz Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS). First, melt occurrence is detected via thresholds for brightness temperature, diurnal variation, and winter anomaly, calibrated with Automatic Weather Station (AWS) data. Second, AWS-driven surface energy balance modeling yields an empirical relation between annual melt days and water-equivalent melt volume. SSMIS-derived melt volumes show good agreement with AWS-based melt estimates (R2 = 0.83). Compared to QuikSCAT and RACMO2.4 outputs, SSMIS captures a similar spatial melt pattern but estimates a total melt volume approximately 15 % lower than RACMO, on the decadal average.

How to cite. Di Biase, V., Kuipers Munneke, P., Wouters, B., van den Broeke, M. R., and van Tiggelen, M.: Brief communication: Estimating Antarctic surface melt rates using passive microwave data calibrated with weather station observations, EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2900, 2025.
Received: 18 Jun 2025 – Discussion started: 06 Aug 2025

Competing interests: B.W. and M.vdB. are members of the editorial board of journal The Cryosphere.

Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this paper. While Copernicus Publications makes every effort to include appropriate place names, the final responsibility lies with the authors. Views expressed in the text are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.
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Valeria Di Biase, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Bert Wouters, Michiel R. van den Broeke, and Maurice van Tiggelen

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Valeria Di Biase, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Bert Wouters, Michiel R. van den Broeke, and Maurice van Tiggelen

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https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2900-supplement

Data sets

Annual Antarctic Surface Melt Maps (2011–12 to 2020–21) from SSMIS 19 GHz V. Di Biase https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16738423

Valeria Di Biase, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Bert Wouters, Michiel R. van den Broeke, and Maurice van Tiggelen

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Short summary
We produce annual maps of Antarctic surface melt volumes from 2012 to 2021 using satellite microwave data. We detect melting days from thresholds on the satellite signal and then use actual melt measurements from weather stations to convert those signals into water‑equivalent volumes. Our maps capture known melt hotspots and show slightly lower totals than climate models. This dataset supports climate and ice‑shelf studies.
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