Applications of Satellite Altimetry to Study the Antarctic Ice Sheet,

International audienceThis chapter discusses a few general properties of Antarctica ice sheet and shows why ice sheet topography is one of the most pertinent parameters for studying the dynamics of the ice sheet. It describes specific aspects of the altimetry technique applied for studying land ice and discusses specifics of measurements of polar ice sheets by radar altimeters. The chapter addresses various areas to which radar and laser altimetry have made notable contributions: surface climatology, ice dynamics, and monitoring of ice volume variations. It summarizes average characteristics of the ice sheet, assuming in first approximation that it is in a state of mass balance. Surface topography is one of the most pertinent parameters for monitoring an ice sheet but also for constraining ice flow models. When using altimetric series, the error due to the poor temporal repetition of the satellite ground track and the presence of surface slope must be corrected