Microwave emission from high Arctic sea ice during freeze‐up

Abstract

A cooperative sea ice remote sensing experiment was conducted in the eastern Beaufort Sea and Mould Bay area during the freeze‐up period in October 1981. Airborne millimeter‐wave imagery at 90, 140, and 220 GHz, and nadir microwave radiometric measurements at 19, 22, and 31 GHz, were made from a U. S. Naval Research Laboratory aircraft, while the Canadian Atmospheric Environment Service conducted an extensive concurrent surface measurement program. This study demonstrates for the first time the high‐resolution capability of 90 GHz to investigate detailed ice morphology and to define ice types. The 140 and 220 GHz imagery is the first ever made of sea ice at these high frequencies. Emissivities are determined for young ice, second‐year ice (SY), multiyear ice (MY), new ice, old shorefast ice, and open water. The young ice exhibits the emissivity typical of first‐year (FY) ice types, i.e., near unity and independent of frequency. The emissivities of new ice and open water increase with frequency, and that of MY ice decreases with frequency. Those of SY ice and old shorefast ice, measured here for the first time, also decrease with frequency but are larger in value than the MY emissivity. Ice type discrimination is optimum at 90 GHz, i.e., the spread in microwave signature between FY ice and old ice (SY and MY) is greatest at 90 GHz. The MY emissivity is lower than that of open water at both 90 and 140 GHz. The measurements presented here provide a basis for development of algorithms to exploit the potential of the Mission Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) to be launched on a Defense Meteorological Satellite in 1985 and, in particular, the 85.5‐GHz SSM/I channels for ice type, concentration, and edge determination.