Remote Sensing of Sea Ice Thickness and Salinity With 0.5–2 GHz Microwave Radiometry

Abstract

An ultrawideband radiometer was used to measure microwave brightness temperature spectra over Arctic sea ice in the Lincoln Sea near the north coast of Greenland. Spectra over the range of 0.5–2 GHz were compared to thermal infrared images collected during the airborne campaign and also compared to nearly concurrent Sentinel-1 C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. Based on those comparisons, spectral signatures were associated with thick multiyear ice and thin ice. A radiative transfer (RT) model consisting of a homogeneous slab of sea ice bounded by sea water and air was then used to invert the spectra for sea ice thickness and salinity. Inferred thicknesses were consistent with ice thickness climatology for ice floes in the Lincoln Sea. Salinities are higher than expected which may be a consequence of neglecting surface and volume scattering contributions in the models.