Validation of Dm-pact Modeled Snow Backscattering Coefficient for Arbitrary Shaped Particles in Ku-band

In scattering modeling of the snow cover individual snow particles are often assumed to be spherical and, depending on the frequency range, either Rayleigh approximation or Mie-scattering is used for the calculation of the phase matrix. However, the complex shapes of realistic snow crystals can have a significant effect on the scattering properties at higher frequencies, especially for the cross-polarized component. In this study homogeneous snow cover is modeled with arbitrary snow crystals and the scattering properties of these particles are compared with Mie-scattering utilizing the dense medium assumption from DM-PACT method [1,2] and both results are compared against experimental data to be gathered in the coming winter with the Snowscatinstrument (polarimetric Xto Ku-band scatterometer owned by European Space Agency) in the NoSRExmeasurement campaign (October 2009 through June 2010). The campaign is organized in support of the preparation of CoReH2O mission.