Feasibility of retrieving Arctic sea ice thickness from the Chinese HY-2B Ku-band radar altimeter

Abstract. With the continuous development of China ocean dynamic environment satellite series (Haiyang-2, HY-2), it is urgent to explore potential application HY-2B in Arctic sea ice thickness retrievals. In this study, we first derive radar freeboard and during two cycles (from October 2019 April 2020 from 2021) using altimeter compare results with Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) CryoSat-2 (CS-2) products. We evaluate our products Operation IceBridge (OIB) airborne data Ice, Cloud, land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) Finally, estimate uncertainties thickness. Here, by calculating difference between relative elevation floe obtained subtracting mean surface (MSS) height anomaly (SSHA) determined an average 15 lowest points method. The deviation CS-2 within 0.02 m, whereas 0.2 m. freeboards are generally thicker than AWI CS-2, except spring (March April). A segment likely has more early winter segment. also find that deviations over multiyear (MYI) larger those first-year (FYI). correlation retrievals OIB values 0.77 (0.84), a root square error (RMSE) 0.13 (0.10) m absolute (MAE) 0.12 (0.081) 0.65 (0.80), RMSE 1.86 (1.00) MAE 1.72 (0.75) uncertainty range 0.021 0.027 while 0.61 0.74 future work will include reprocessing L1 dedicated retracker, waveforms directly identify leads release reasonable suitable for polar retrieval.