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In-situ, altimeter-style radar measurements of sea ice at Rothera

Robbie Mallett, Vishnu Nandan, Julienne Stroeve, Rosemary Willatt, Tom Newman, Gaëlle Veyssière, Carmen Nab, Connor Nelson, John Yackel, Jeremy Wilkinson, Blair Fyffe, Bede West, Jo Cole, Kath Nicholson, Will Wycherley, Eloise Chambers

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A tale of two studies…

Beaven et al., 1995; Int JRS

Willatt et al., 2010; TGARS

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Frost flower suppression of NRCS

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What might be driving this?

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In-situ and satellite:

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  1. Ice getting less salty
  2. Snow getting more salty
  3. Less radar power reaching the ice (grains & brine)

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Just satellite drivers:

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  1. Ice roughening
  2. Rarer unidentified leads

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Intriguingly, AltiKa shows a similar seasonal NRCS evolution to CryoSat-2!

This either means:

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  1. The two frequencies are bouncing off the same surface

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  • They’re bouncing off different surfaces that have a similar seasonal NRCS evolution.

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Part 2: A Flooding Event

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Snow-ice

Flooded snow