A broad spectral, interdisciplinary investigation of the electromagnetic properties of sea ice

Abstract

Abstract-This paper highlights the interrelationship of research completed by a team of investigators and presented in the several individual papers comprising this Special Section on the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Arlington, VA, Sponsored Sea Ice Electromagnetics Accelerated Research Initiative (ARI). The objectives of the initiative were the following: 1) understand the mechanisms and processes that link the morphological and physical properties of sea ice to its electromagnetic (EM) characteristics; 2) develop and verify predictive models for the interaction of visible, infrared, and microwave radiation with sea ice; 3) develop and verify inverse scattering techniques applicable to problems involving the interaction of EM radiation with sea ice. Guiding principles for the program were that all EM data be taken with concurrent physical property data (salinity, density, roughness, etc.) and that broad spectral data be acquired in as nearly a simultaneous fashion as possible. Over 30 investigators participated in laboratory, field, and modeling studies that spanned the EM spectrum from radio to ultraviolet wavelengths. An interdisciplinary approach that brought together sea ice physicists, remote-sensing experts (in EM measurements), and forward and inverse modelers (primarily mathematicians and EM theorists) was a hallmark of the program. Along with describing results from experiments and modeling efforts, possible paradigms for using broad spectral data in developing algorithms for analyzing remote-sensing data in terms of ice concentration, age, type, and possibly thickness are briefly discussed.

The Arctic Ocean Observation Operator for 6.9 GHz (ARC3O) – Part 1: How to obtain sea-ice brightness temperatures at 6.9 GHz from climate model output

“…A few of such observations exist already, from both laboratory setting and in-situ, but they mainly focus on frequencies higher than 6.9 GHz (e.g. Grenfell et al, 1998;Jezek et al, 1998;Perovich et al, 1998;Hwang et al, 2007). With more combined observations at lower frequencies, we expect that the uncertainty in the brightness temperature simulation can be reduced in the future through further research and better understanding of the components introducing the uncertainty.…”

Numerical Analysis of Microwave Scattering from Layered Sea Ice Based on the Finite Element Method

“…Good reviews of models used for simulating microwave scattering from sea ice were provided in refs. [2,3]. The proposed models were utilised to simulate the surface and the volume scattering within the sea ice and the snow cover above, but there is still a lack of study on scattering from the subsurface structures of sea ice.…”

First‐year sea ice spring melt transitions in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago from time‐series synthetic aperture radar data, 1992–2002

“…Considerable research has investigated linkages between optical and microwave estimates of the shortwave energy exchange at the OSA (e.g. Barber et al, 1995;Jefferies et al, 1997;Jezek et al, 1998;Perovich et al, 1998;Yackel and Barber, 2000;De Abreu et al, 2001). This has led to the notion of using the time-series evolution of microwave scattering coefficients as a proxy measure of albedo changes over seasonally evolving sea ice (e.g.…”