ABSTRACT
This chapter explains about the Antarctic ice sheet: a surface model for satellite altimeter studies. The continuous presence of a number of nations in Antarctica has enabled major programs of research to be undertaken to understand the largest ice sheet on Earth. The fronts of ice shelves and ice sheet margins are generally marked by an ice cliff several tens of meters in height. The ice sheet surface model has been constructed for use with the waveform generator based upon airborne measurements over Antarctica and an examination of Landsat imagery. Based upon key satellite altimeter measurements of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, it has been possible to construct a model of the ice-sheet surface for evaluating altimeter tracker performance. Key characteristics of the ice sheet surface are extracted for modeling purposes and form a hierarchy of three distinctive terrain types: large-scale ice sheet geometry, dynamic surface topography and transient surface features such as sastrugi and snow dunes.
