CryoSat Validation Experiment (CryoVEx) 2011 Radar Penetration Study
Abstract
Understanding radar penetration through snow cover on sea ice is essential for sea ice thickness determination using radar altimetry. During the CryoSat Validation Experiment (CryoVEx) in April 2011, we investigated radar penetration into the snow pack. Ground data were collected at three field sites, in the pack ice (85.6 and 83.6N), and on fast ice (82.5N.) Radar data were gathered using the sled-borne UCL Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), which was deployed for the first time on Arctic sea ice, and the ASIRAS airborne radar altimeter. The ground and airborne radar data are compared to field measurements to investigate how the snow pack properties affect the dominant scattering surface in the radar return echo. In addition we present preliminary comparisons of the airborne radar data with CryoSat-2 and NASA IceBridge airborne altimeters.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.C41A0373W
- Keywords:
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- 0736 CRYOSPHERE / Snow;
- 0750 CRYOSPHERE / Sea ice;
- 0758 CRYOSPHERE / Remote sensing