Snow Thickness Estimation on First-Year Sea Ice from Late Winter Spaceborne Scatterometer Backscatter Variance
Ku- and C-band spaceborne scatterometer sigma nought (σ°) backscatter data of snow covered landfast first-year sea ice from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are acquired during the winter season with coincident in situ snow-thickness observations. Our objective is to describe a methodological framewo...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2072-4292/11/4/417/ 2023-08-20T04:03:14+02:00 Snow Thickness Estimation on First-Year Sea Ice from Late Winter Spaceborne Scatterometer Backscatter Variance John Yackel Torsten Geldsetzer Mallik Mahmud Vishnu Nandan Stephen E. L. Howell Randall K. Scharien Hoi Ming Lam 2019-02-18 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11040417 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Ocean Remote Sensing https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs11040417 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Remote Sensing; Volume 11; Issue 4; Pages: 417 snow thickness first-year sea ice scatterometer backscatter (σ°) variance ASCAT QuikSCAT Text 2019 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11040417 2023-07-31T22:03:12Z Ku- and C-band spaceborne scatterometer sigma nought (σ°) backscatter data of snow covered landfast first-year sea ice from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are acquired during the winter season with coincident in situ snow-thickness observations. Our objective is to describe a methodological framework for estimating relative snow thickness on first-year sea ice based on the variance in σ° from daily time series ASCAT and QuikSCAT scatterometer measurements during the late winter season prior to melt onset. We first describe our theoretical basis for this approach, including assumptions and conditions under which the method is ideally suited and then present observational evidence from four independent case studies to support our hypothesis. Results suggest that the approach can provide a relative measure of snow thickness prior to σ° detected melt onset at both Ku- and C-band frequencies. We observe that, during the late winter season, a thinner snow cover displays a larger variance in daily σ° compared to a thicker snow cover on first-year sea ice. This is because for a given increase in air temperature, a thinner snow cover manifests a larger increase in basal snow layer brine volume owing to its higher thermal conductivity, a larger increase in the dielectric constant and a larger increase in σ° at both Ku- and C bands. The approach does not apply when snow thickness distributions on first-year sea ice being compared are statistically similar, indicating that similar late winter σ° variances likely indicate regions of similar snow thickness. Text Arctic Archipelago Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago Sea ice MDPI Open Access Publishing Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago Remote Sensing 11 4 417 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
snow thickness first-year sea ice scatterometer backscatter (σ°) variance ASCAT QuikSCAT |
spellingShingle |
snow thickness first-year sea ice scatterometer backscatter (σ°) variance ASCAT QuikSCAT John Yackel Torsten Geldsetzer Mallik Mahmud Vishnu Nandan Stephen E. L. Howell Randall K. Scharien Hoi Ming Lam Snow Thickness Estimation on First-Year Sea Ice from Late Winter Spaceborne Scatterometer Backscatter Variance |
topic_facet |
snow thickness first-year sea ice scatterometer backscatter (σ°) variance ASCAT QuikSCAT |
description |
Ku- and C-band spaceborne scatterometer sigma nought (σ°) backscatter data of snow covered landfast first-year sea ice from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are acquired during the winter season with coincident in situ snow-thickness observations. Our objective is to describe a methodological framework for estimating relative snow thickness on first-year sea ice based on the variance in σ° from daily time series ASCAT and QuikSCAT scatterometer measurements during the late winter season prior to melt onset. We first describe our theoretical basis for this approach, including assumptions and conditions under which the method is ideally suited and then present observational evidence from four independent case studies to support our hypothesis. Results suggest that the approach can provide a relative measure of snow thickness prior to σ° detected melt onset at both Ku- and C-band frequencies. We observe that, during the late winter season, a thinner snow cover displays a larger variance in daily σ° compared to a thicker snow cover on first-year sea ice. This is because for a given increase in air temperature, a thinner snow cover manifests a larger increase in basal snow layer brine volume owing to its higher thermal conductivity, a larger increase in the dielectric constant and a larger increase in σ° at both Ku- and C bands. The approach does not apply when snow thickness distributions on first-year sea ice being compared are statistically similar, indicating that similar late winter σ° variances likely indicate regions of similar snow thickness. |
format |
Text |
author |
John Yackel Torsten Geldsetzer Mallik Mahmud Vishnu Nandan Stephen E. L. Howell Randall K. Scharien Hoi Ming Lam |
author_facet |
John Yackel Torsten Geldsetzer Mallik Mahmud Vishnu Nandan Stephen E. L. Howell Randall K. Scharien Hoi Ming Lam |
author_sort |
John Yackel |
title |
Snow Thickness Estimation on First-Year Sea Ice from Late Winter Spaceborne Scatterometer Backscatter Variance |
title_short |
Snow Thickness Estimation on First-Year Sea Ice from Late Winter Spaceborne Scatterometer Backscatter Variance |
title_full |
Snow Thickness Estimation on First-Year Sea Ice from Late Winter Spaceborne Scatterometer Backscatter Variance |
title_fullStr |
Snow Thickness Estimation on First-Year Sea Ice from Late Winter Spaceborne Scatterometer Backscatter Variance |
title_full_unstemmed |
Snow Thickness Estimation on First-Year Sea Ice from Late Winter Spaceborne Scatterometer Backscatter Variance |
title_sort |
snow thickness estimation on first-year sea ice from late winter spaceborne scatterometer backscatter variance |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11040417 |
geographic |
Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
genre |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago Sea ice |
op_source |
Remote Sensing; Volume 11; Issue 4; Pages: 417 |
op_relation |
Ocean Remote Sensing https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs11040417 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11040417 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
417 |
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1774713631680757760 |