C13A-0794
Reflectance Spectra of the Juneau Icefield
Monday, 14 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Lara Hughes-Allen, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, Katherine Popyack, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY, United States, Adrian Peter, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, Elizabeth Perera, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, United States and Allen Pope, National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder, CO, United States
Abstract:
Snow reflectance is an important input to understanding a glacier’s surface energy balance. It is also useful for quantifying other snow properties such as impurities and grain size. In cooperation with the Juneau Icefield Research Program, we measured the spectral reflectance and albedo of a range of targets, collecting a spectral catalogue of the Taku glacier system. Using this spectral library, the main foci of this study are linking red algae biomass to spectral reflectance, quantifying the radiative forcing of impurities in suncups, and testing a snow grain size retrieval algorithm. Impurities, algae, and large snow grains all reduce the reflectance of shortwave radiation but with unique spectral signatures. In addition, spectra are used in conjunction with satellite imagery to investigate the spatial variability of albedo and therefore impurities on the Taku Glacier.
