RETRIEVAL OF FIRST YEAR ICE SURFACE SALINITY WITH FULLY POLARIMETRIC SAR

摘要

An approach for retrieving sea ice surface salinity us- ing fully polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (pol- SAR) data is examined. The approach is based on adopting the integral equation model (IEM) coupled with known empirical relations between relative per- mittivity and sea ice salinity. The IEM model is in- verted using the adaptive non negative eigenvalue de- composition (ANNED), yielding estimates of sea ice surface salinity as well as root mean square surface height and surface correlation length. The approach is tested on RADARSAT-2 data acquired over thin land fast first year ice, close to the island Hopen in the Barents sea. The retrieved salinities are com- pared to in situ data, indicating a general overesti- mation, but are on average correct within an order of magnitude. Possible shortcomings and improve- ments of the approach are discussed.