An Ultra-Wideband, Microwave Radar for Measuring Snow Thickness on Sea Ice and Mapping Near-Surface Internal Layers in Polar Firn
Sea ice is generally covered with snow, which can vary in thickness from a few centimeters to >1 m. Snow cover acts as a thermal insulator modulating the heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, and it impacts sea-ice growth rates and overall thickness, a key indicator of climate chang...
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:20150001450 2023-05-15T13:33:56+02:00 An Ultra-Wideband, Microwave Radar for Measuring Snow Thickness on Sea Ice and Mapping Near-Surface Internal Layers in Polar Firn Gomez-Garcia, Daniel Rodriguez-Morales, Fernando Markus, Thorsten Leuschen, Carl Holt, Benjamin Gogineni, Prasad Panzer, Ben Patel, Azsa Paden, John Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available April 1, 2013 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20150001450 unknown Document ID: 20150001450 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20150001450 Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright CASI Earth Resources and Remote Sensing GSFC-E-DAA-TN19596 Journal of Glaciology; 59; 214; 244-254 2013 ftnasantrs 2019-07-21T00:18:46Z Sea ice is generally covered with snow, which can vary in thickness from a few centimeters to >1 m. Snow cover acts as a thermal insulator modulating the heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, and it impacts sea-ice growth rates and overall thickness, a key indicator of climate change in polar regions. Snow depth is required to estimate sea-ice thickness using freeboard measurements made with satellite altimeters. The snow cover also acts as a mechanical load that depresses ice freeboard (snow and ice above sea level). Freeboard depression can result in flooding of the snow/ice interface and the formation of a thick slush layer, particularly in the Antarctic sea-ice cover. The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) has developed an ultra-wideband, microwave radar capable of operation on long-endurance aircraft to characterize the thickness of snow over sea ice. The low-power, 100mW signal is swept from 2 to 8GHz allowing the air/snow and snow/ ice interfaces to be mapped with 5 c range resolution in snow; this is an improvement over the original system that worked from 2 to 6.5 GHz. From 2009 to 2012, CReSIS successfully operated the radar on the NASA P-3B and DC-8 aircraft to collect data on snow-covered sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic for NASA Operation IceBridge. The radar was found capable of snow depth retrievals ranging from 10cm to >1 m. We also demonstrated that this radar can be used to map near-surface internal layers in polar firn with fine range resolution. Here we describe the instrument design, characteristics and performance of the radar. Other/Unknown Material Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) Climate change Sea ice NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Antarctic Arctic The Antarctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
op_collection_id |
ftnasantrs |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing |
spellingShingle |
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing Gomez-Garcia, Daniel Rodriguez-Morales, Fernando Markus, Thorsten Leuschen, Carl Holt, Benjamin Gogineni, Prasad Panzer, Ben Patel, Azsa Paden, John An Ultra-Wideband, Microwave Radar for Measuring Snow Thickness on Sea Ice and Mapping Near-Surface Internal Layers in Polar Firn |
topic_facet |
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing |
description |
Sea ice is generally covered with snow, which can vary in thickness from a few centimeters to >1 m. Snow cover acts as a thermal insulator modulating the heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, and it impacts sea-ice growth rates and overall thickness, a key indicator of climate change in polar regions. Snow depth is required to estimate sea-ice thickness using freeboard measurements made with satellite altimeters. The snow cover also acts as a mechanical load that depresses ice freeboard (snow and ice above sea level). Freeboard depression can result in flooding of the snow/ice interface and the formation of a thick slush layer, particularly in the Antarctic sea-ice cover. The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) has developed an ultra-wideband, microwave radar capable of operation on long-endurance aircraft to characterize the thickness of snow over sea ice. The low-power, 100mW signal is swept from 2 to 8GHz allowing the air/snow and snow/ ice interfaces to be mapped with 5 c range resolution in snow; this is an improvement over the original system that worked from 2 to 6.5 GHz. From 2009 to 2012, CReSIS successfully operated the radar on the NASA P-3B and DC-8 aircraft to collect data on snow-covered sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic for NASA Operation IceBridge. The radar was found capable of snow depth retrievals ranging from 10cm to >1 m. We also demonstrated that this radar can be used to map near-surface internal layers in polar firn with fine range resolution. Here we describe the instrument design, characteristics and performance of the radar. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Gomez-Garcia, Daniel Rodriguez-Morales, Fernando Markus, Thorsten Leuschen, Carl Holt, Benjamin Gogineni, Prasad Panzer, Ben Patel, Azsa Paden, John |
author_facet |
Gomez-Garcia, Daniel Rodriguez-Morales, Fernando Markus, Thorsten Leuschen, Carl Holt, Benjamin Gogineni, Prasad Panzer, Ben Patel, Azsa Paden, John |
author_sort |
Gomez-Garcia, Daniel |
title |
An Ultra-Wideband, Microwave Radar for Measuring Snow Thickness on Sea Ice and Mapping Near-Surface Internal Layers in Polar Firn |
title_short |
An Ultra-Wideband, Microwave Radar for Measuring Snow Thickness on Sea Ice and Mapping Near-Surface Internal Layers in Polar Firn |
title_full |
An Ultra-Wideband, Microwave Radar for Measuring Snow Thickness on Sea Ice and Mapping Near-Surface Internal Layers in Polar Firn |
title_fullStr |
An Ultra-Wideband, Microwave Radar for Measuring Snow Thickness on Sea Ice and Mapping Near-Surface Internal Layers in Polar Firn |
title_full_unstemmed |
An Ultra-Wideband, Microwave Radar for Measuring Snow Thickness on Sea Ice and Mapping Near-Surface Internal Layers in Polar Firn |
title_sort |
ultra-wideband, microwave radar for measuring snow thickness on sea ice and mapping near-surface internal layers in polar firn |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20150001450 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
geographic |
Antarctic Arctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Arctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) Climate change Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) Climate change Sea ice |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 20150001450 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20150001450 |
op_rights |
Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright |
_version_ |
1766047192640913408 |