Donald K. Perovich

Microwave and physical properties of sea ice in the winter Marginal Ice Zone

Surface-based active and passive microwave measurements were made in conjunction with ice property measurements for several distinct ice types in the Fram Strait during March and April 1987. Synthetic aperture radar imagery downlinked from an aircraft was used to select study sites. The surface-based radar scattering cross section and emissivity spectra generally support previously inferred qualitative relationships between ice types, exhibiting expected separation between young, first-year and multiyear ice. Gradient ratios, calculated for both active and passive data, appear to allow clear separation of ice types when used jointly. Surface flooding of multiyear floes, resulting from excessive loading and perhaps wave action, causes both active and passive signatures to resemble those of first-year ice. This effect could possibly cause estimates of ice type percentages in the marginal ice zone to be in error when derived from aircraft- or satellite-borne sensors.

A laboratory study of the effect of frost flowers on C band radar backscatter from sea ice

C band images of Arctic sea ice taken by the ERS 1 synthetic aperture radar show transitory regions of enhanced radar backscatter from young sea ice. Published field observations associate this increase with frost flower growth and the capture of blowing snow by the flowers. To investigate the first part of this phenomenon, we carried out a laboratory experiment on the response of C band radar backscatter to frost flowers growing on the surface of newly formed saline ice. The experiment took place in a 5 m by 7 m by 1.2 m deep saline water pool located in a two-story indoor refrigerated facility at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. Sodium chloride ice was grown in this pool at an air temperature of −28°C. The frost flowers first appeared on the ice surface as dendrites and then changed to needles as the ice sheet grew thicker and the surface temperatures became colder. The frost flowers reached to a height of 10–15 mm, and beneath each cluster of frost flowers a slush layer formed to a thickness of approximately 4 mm. Far-field radar measurements of the backscatter from the ice were made at incident angles from 20° to 40° and at approximately 6-hour intervals throughout the 3-day period of the experiment. A backscatter minimum occurred early in the flower growth at the time coincident with an abrupt doubling in the ice surface salinity. Once the full flower coverage was achieved, we removed first the crystal flowers and then the slush layer from the ice surface. The results for these cases show that the crystals have little impact on the backscatter, while the underlying slush patches yield a backscatter increase of 3–5 dB over that of bare ice. The laboratory results suggest that this relative backscatter increase of approximately 5 dB can be used as an index to mark the full areal coverage of frost flowers.

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

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 fill 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.

Laboratory measurements of sea ice: connections to microwave remote sensing

The connections between laboratory measurements and remote-sensing observations of sea ice are explored. The focus of this paper is on thin ice, which is more easily simulated in a laboratory environment. The authors summarize results of C-band scatterometer measurements and discuss how they may help in the interpretation of remote-sensing data. They compare the measurements with observations of thin ice from ERS and airborne radar data sets. They suggest that laboratory backscatter signatures should serve as bounds on the interpretation of remote-sensing data. They examine these bounds from the perspective of thin ice signatures, the effect of temperature, and surface processes, such as frost flowers and slush on these signatures. Controlled experiments also suggest new directions in remote-sensing measurements. The potential of polarimetric radar measurements in the retrieval of thickness of thin ice is discussed. In addition to the radar results, the authors discuss the importance of low-frequency passive measurements with respect to the thickness of thin ice.