Airborne Measurements of Snow Thickness: Using ultrawide-band frequency-modulated-continuous-wave radars

Abstract

Frequency-modulated-continuous-wave (FM-CW) radar has been used extensively for the airborne measurement of snow thickness over sea ice and the mapping of annual accumulation over land ice. In contrast to conventional in situ measurements, FM-CW radar, when operated onboard an airborne platform, can be a useful tool for widearea surveys of snow deposition. Since the early 2000s, the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) at the University of Kansas (KU) has designed, developed, and deployed airborne ultrawide-band (UWB) FM-CW radars, called Snow Radars, on National Science Foundation (NSF)-, NASA-, Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)-, and Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI)-provided aircraft in both Arctic and Antarctic regions and generated a large amount of snow data products. In addition to the significant standalone value of the snow-thickness measurements, these data are being used in estimating Arctic sea ice thickness, which is a key variable in the study of atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions. This article provides a review of snow remote sensing techniques with airborne FM-CW radars to document the operating principle, design, and evolution of CReSIS' UWB FM-CW radars and discuss and promote understanding of the advantages and limitations associated with these systems.