Initial results of CryoSat-2 data from the Arctic

• Main Authors: Kildegaard Poulsen, Stine, Stenseng, Lars, Skourup, Henriette, Toudal Pedersen, Leif, Forsberg, René, Sørensen, Louise Sandberg
• Format: Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: European Space Agency 2011
• Subjects: Arctic; Svalbard; Asar; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/a865527d-6538-4c9f-a9bf-4b1db21ff2dc; http://www.cryosat2011.org/

We examine SAR L1b data from the commissioning phase, currently available for the calibration and validation teams. We use CryoSat-2 data to detect leads in the sea-ice in an area north of Svalbard. Furthermore, we classify the sea-ice from computed freeboard values, and evaluate the coherence between the SAR backscatter and the CryoSat-2 data. The surface elevation is extracted from an 80% threshold retracker and a five parameter - retracker, and this is given with respect to the DTU10 Mean Sea Surface model (MSS). The results are compared with an Envisat ASAR image, and we show that there is a strong correspondence between the freeboard heights and the leads visible in the ASAR image.