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• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Radar altimetry; Laser altimetry; Sea ice thickness; Snow depth; Aagaard; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.469.9190; http://www.orbit.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/documents/bios/McAdoo/sdarticle-1.pdf

We present the first quantitative analysis of data from the LaRA laser and radar altimeters, and demonstrate the potential of combining laser and radar altimetry to estimate snow depth. LaRA elevation estimates compare well with elevations from the radar altimeter onboard ERS-2 at the factor that may ultimately affect the thermohaline circulation (Aagaard & Carmack, 1989). Sea ice also inhibits the transfer of provided a record of sea ice extent for approximately the past 30 years (Comiso, 2006), in-situ ice thickness measurements are spatially and temporally limited (Bitz et al., 2001). One of the two main objectives of the forthcoming European Space Available online at www.sciencedirect.com t 1heat, moisture and momentum between the atmosphere and the ocean (Ledley, 1993) and has a high albedo compared to thesub-meter level and the study provides lessons for future validation of satellite altimetry data over sea ice. Laser elevations are consistently higher than the radar elevations over snow covered sea ice. As LaRA was a flight of opportunity, no coincident in-situ measurements were available. Nevertheless, the difference between the reflecting surface of the laser and radar is consistent with snow depth from climatology and the analysis techniques developed in this paper will be useful for future radar and laser altimetry comparisons.