Validation of CryoSat-2 Performance over Arctic Sea Ice

Alessandro Di Bella; Henriette Skourup; J. Bouffard; T. Parrinello

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to validate CryoSat-2 (CS2) SARIn performance over sea ice by use of airborne laser altimetry data obtained during the CryoVEx 2012 campaign. A study by [1] has shown that the extra information from the CS2 SARIn mode increases the number of valid sea surface height estimates which are usually discarded in the SAR mode due to snagging of the radar signal. As the number of valid detected leads increases, the uncertainty of the freeboard heights decreases.
In this study, the snow freeboard heights estimated using data from the airborne laser scanner are used to validate the sea ice freeboard obtained by processing CS2 SARIn level 1b waveforms. The possible reduction in the random freeboard uncertainty is investigated comparing two scenarios, i.e. a SAR-like and a SARIn acquisition.
It is observed that using the extra phase information, CS2 is able to detect leads up to 2370 m off-nadir. A reduction in the the total random freeboard uncertainty of-40% is observed by taking advantage of the CS2 interferometric capabilities, which enable to include-35% of the waveforms discarded in the SAR-like scenario.

Original language	English
Publication date	2016
Number of pages	1
Publication status	Published - 2016
Event	ESA Living Planet Symposium 2016 - Prague, Czech Republic Duration: 9 May 2016 → 13 May 2016 http://lps16.esa.int/

Conference

Conference	ESA Living Planet Symposium 2016
Country/Territory	Czech Republic
City	Prague
Period	09/05/2016 → 13/05/2016
Internet address	http://lps16.esa.int/

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http://lps16.esa.int/page_session185.php#2368p

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Cite this

@conference{9511513572fd422b83a5d47695731eae,

title = "Validation of CryoSat-2 Performance over Arctic Sea Ice",

abstract = "The main objective of this work is to validate CryoSat-2 (CS2) SARIn performance over sea ice by use of airborne laser altimetry data obtained during the CryoVEx 2012 campaign. A study by [1] has shown that the extra information from the CS2 SARIn mode increases the number of valid sea surface height estimates which are usually discarded in the SAR mode due to snagging of the radar signal. As the number of valid detected leads increases, the uncertainty of the freeboard heights decreases. In this study, the snow freeboard heights estimated using data from the airborne laser scanner are used to validate the sea ice freeboard obtained by processing CS2 SARIn level 1b waveforms. The possible reduction in the random freeboard uncertainty is investigated comparing two scenarios, i.e. a SAR-like and a SARIn acquisition. It is observed that using the extra phase information, CS2 is able to detect leads up to 2370 m off-nadir. A reduction in the the total random freeboard uncertainty of-40\% is observed by taking advantage of the CS2 interferometric capabilities, which enable to include-35\% of the waveforms discarded in the SAR-like scenario.",

author = "\{Di Bella\}, Alessandro and Henriette Skourup and J. Bouffard and T. Parrinello",

year = "2016",

language = "English",

note = "ESA Living Planet Symposium 2016 ; Conference date: 09-05-2016 Through 13-05-2016",

url = "http://lps16.esa.int/",

}

TY - ABST

T1 - Validation of CryoSat-2 Performance over Arctic Sea Ice

AU - Di Bella, Alessandro

AU - Skourup, Henriette

AU - Bouffard, J.

AU - Parrinello, T.

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - The main objective of this work is to validate CryoSat-2 (CS2) SARIn performance over sea ice by use of airborne laser altimetry data obtained during the CryoVEx 2012 campaign. A study by [1] has shown that the extra information from the CS2 SARIn mode increases the number of valid sea surface height estimates which are usually discarded in the SAR mode due to snagging of the radar signal. As the number of valid detected leads increases, the uncertainty of the freeboard heights decreases. In this study, the snow freeboard heights estimated using data from the airborne laser scanner are used to validate the sea ice freeboard obtained by processing CS2 SARIn level 1b waveforms. The possible reduction in the random freeboard uncertainty is investigated comparing two scenarios, i.e. a SAR-like and a SARIn acquisition. It is observed that using the extra phase information, CS2 is able to detect leads up to 2370 m off-nadir. A reduction in the the total random freeboard uncertainty of-40% is observed by taking advantage of the CS2 interferometric capabilities, which enable to include-35% of the waveforms discarded in the SAR-like scenario.

AB - The main objective of this work is to validate CryoSat-2 (CS2) SARIn performance over sea ice by use of airborne laser altimetry data obtained during the CryoVEx 2012 campaign. A study by [1] has shown that the extra information from the CS2 SARIn mode increases the number of valid sea surface height estimates which are usually discarded in the SAR mode due to snagging of the radar signal. As the number of valid detected leads increases, the uncertainty of the freeboard heights decreases. In this study, the snow freeboard heights estimated using data from the airborne laser scanner are used to validate the sea ice freeboard obtained by processing CS2 SARIn level 1b waveforms. The possible reduction in the random freeboard uncertainty is investigated comparing two scenarios, i.e. a SAR-like and a SARIn acquisition. It is observed that using the extra phase information, CS2 is able to detect leads up to 2370 m off-nadir. A reduction in the the total random freeboard uncertainty of-40% is observed by taking advantage of the CS2 interferometric capabilities, which enable to include-35% of the waveforms discarded in the SAR-like scenario.

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

T2 - ESA Living Planet Symposium 2016

Y2 - 9 May 2016 through 13 May 2016