Investigation of Arctic Sea Ice Thickness using Space-borne Polarimetric SAR data

Space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data have been widely used to produce ice concentration (type), ice motion, ice charting (operational route planning), and iceberg detection. Recent availability of polarimetric SAR sensors (e.g., TerraSAR-X, RADARSAT-2, and ALOS PALSAR) enables us to explore the full potential of polarimetric data to derive sea ice information. Among the many sea ice parameters, sea ice thickness is the most highlighted parameters in the context of climate changes [1] and operative perspective. While large-scale ice thickness can be derived by space-borne altimetry [1, 2], the ice thickness retrieval at finer resolution for operational purpose is not reliable. It has been shown some possibility to derive the thickness of first-year ice (FYI) by using airborne Land X-band SAR data and C-band ENVISAT ASAR data [3-5]. If successful, highresolution ice thickness could be derived from space-borne polarimetric SAR data. It, however, still remains significant challenges to derive robust and accurate ice thickness given large variability in ice types and features in the Arctic. In this study we present results from polarimetric analysis of TerraSAR-X, RADARSAT-2 and ALOS PALSAR data, which have been acquired in conjunction of sea ice field observations. Using SAR and field data together, we explore the possibility of ice thickness retrieval over various ice types and features by using polarimetric SAR data.