Articles | Volume 13, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-861-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-861-2019
Research article
 | 
14 Mar 2019
Research article |  | 14 Mar 2019

Retrieval of snow freeboard of Antarctic sea ice using waveform fitting of CryoSat-2 returns

Steven W. Fons and Nathan T. Kurtz

Data sets

IceBridge ATM L2 Icessn Elevation, Slope, and Roughness, Version 2 M. Studinger https://doi.org/10.5067/CPRXXK3F39RV

IceBridge Snow Radar L1B Geolocated Radar Echo Strength Profiles, Version 2 C. Leuschen https://doi.org/10.5067/FAZTWP500V70

IceBridge Ku-band Radar L1B Geolocated Radar Echo Strength Profiles, Version 2 C. Leuschen, P. Gogineni, F. Rodriguez-Morales, J. Paden, and C. Allen https://doi.org/10.5067/D7DX7J7J5JN9

Bootstrap Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus- 30 7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS, Version 3 J. C. Comiso https://doi.org/10.5067/7Q8HCCWS4I0R

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Short summary
A method to measure the snow freeboard of Antarctic sea ice from CryoSat-2 data is developed. Through comparisons with data from airborne campaigns and another satellite mission, we find that this method can reasonably retrieve snow freeboard across the Antarctic and shows promise in retrieving snow depth in certain locations. Snow freeboard data from CryoSat-2 are important because they enable the calculation of sea ice thickness and help to better understand snow depth on Antarctic sea ice.