Retrieval of Snow Depth on Arctic Sea Ice From Surface-Based, Polarimetric, Dual-Frequency Radar Altimetry

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Willatt, R., Stroeve, J.C., Nandan, V., Newman, T., Mallett, R., Hendricks, S., Ricker, R., Mead, J., Itkin, P., Tonboe, R., Wagner, D.N., Spreen, G., Liston, G., Schneebeli, M., Krampe, D., Tsamados, M., Demir, O., Wilkinson, J., Jaggi, M., Zhou, L., Huntermann, M., Raphael, I.A., Jutila, A., Oggier, M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/536148/; https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/536148/1/Geophysical%20Research%20Letters%20-%202023%20-%20Willatt%20-%20Retrieval%20of%20Snow%20Depth%20on%20Arctic%20Sea%20Ice%20From%20Surface%E2%80%90Based%20%20Polarimetric%20.pdf; https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2023GL104461

Snow depth on sea ice is an Essential Climate Variable and a major source of uncertainty in satellite altimetry-derived sea ice thickness. During winter of the MOSAiC Expedition, the “KuKa” dual-frequency, fully polarized Ku- and Ka-band radar was deployed in “stare” nadir-looking mode to investigate the possibility of combining these two frequencies to retrieve snow depth. Three approaches were investigated: dual-frequency, dual-polarization and waveform shape, and compared to independent snow depth measurements. Novel dual-polarization approaches yielded r2 values up to 0.77. Mean snow depths agreed within 1 cm, even for data sub-banded to CryoSat-2 SIRAL and SARAL AltiKa bandwidths. Snow depths from co-polarized dual-frequency approaches were at least a factor of four too small and had a r2 0.15 or lower. r2 for waveform shape techniques reached 0.72 but depths were underestimated. Snow depth retrievals using polarimetric information or waveform shape may therefore be possible from airborne/satellite radar altimeters.