POLARIZATION SCATTEROMETER MEASUREMENTS DURING ARK XIX/1

• Main Authors: Stefan Kern, Martin Gade
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asar; Svalbard; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.544.3109; http://www.ifm.zmaw.de/fileadmin/files/images/Staff/Stefan_Kern/pdf2/16.pdf

Sea ice type classification based on active microwave remote sensing can be improved using multi-frequency, multi-polarization data. We present results of a first analysis of such data acquired by the helicopterborne multi-frequency (five different frequency bands), multi-polarization (all like- and cross polarizations) scatterometer HELISCAT during ARK XIX/1 around Svalbard. HELISCAT C band data were compared to almost coincident Envisat ASAR imagery yielding a correlation of 0.496 and 0.745 for two selected flight legs and a good agreement in the relative C band backscatter variation along the flight track. Changes in L, (C), and Ku band data are in good agreement with changes in sea ice thickness from electromagnetic thickness sounding, laser altimetry of the sea ice freeboard, and CCD-camera imagery.