TITLE:     Variability in Sea-Ice Coverage and Ice-motion Dynamics in the
	   PAL LTER Study Region West of the Antarctic Peninsula
AUTHOR:    S Stammerjohn, Raymond C Smith, Mark R. Drinkwater, and Xiang Liu
DATE:      6-10 July 1998
PLACE:     IGARSS98 conference presented in Seattle, Wash. 
           "Proceedings "IEEE 1998 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing
	   Symposium (IGARSS'98) Digest"; hardcopy and cdrom.

ABSTRACT:
Sea-ice conditions and kinematics are studied in the Palmer Long-Term
Ecological Research (PAL LTER) study region west of the Antarctic
Peninsula.  Remote sensing data from ERS-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar
(SAR) and Scatterometer (EScat) and from DMSP SSM/I, are used to study
the influence of synoptic weather systems on sea-ice characteristics
during July-August 1992.  Weather records from Palmer Station (64
degrees 46'S, 64 degrees 3'W) on Anvers Island show large cyclonic
storms moving through the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) region on
a quasi-weekly basis.  Periods of strong north-westerly to
north-easterly winds caused above normal air temperatures and in turn
a rapid early retreat of the sea-ice cover in the WAP region.  Ice
motion derived from SSM/I images reveals the large-scale sea-ice
kinematics during these peiods together with statistical summaries of
the impact of each storm upon regional opening/closing.