Wind redistribution of snow impacts the Ka- and Ku-band radar signatures of Arctic sea ice

Nandan, Vishnu; Willatt, Rosemary; Mallett, Robbie; Stroeve, Julienne; Geldsetzer, Torsten; Scharien, Randall; Tonboe, Rasmus; Yackel, John; Landy, Jack; Clemens-Sewall, David; Jutila, Arttu; Wagner, David N.; Krampe, Daniela; Huntemann, Marcus; Mahmud, Mallik; Jensen, David; Newman, Thomas; Hendricks, Stefan; Spreen, Gunnar; Macfarlane, Amy; Schneebeli, Martin; Mead, James; Ricker, Robert; Gallagher, Michael; Duguay, Claude; Raphael, Ian; Polashenski, Chris; Tsamados, Michel; Matero, Ilkka; Hoppmann, Mario

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2211-2023

Articles | Volume 17, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2211-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2211-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 6

Research article

|

02 Jun 2023

Research article |

| 02 Jun 2023

Wind redistribution of snow impacts the Ka- and Ku-band radar signatures of Arctic sea ice

Vishnu Nandan, Rosemary Willatt, Robbie Mallett, Julienne Stroeve, Torsten Geldsetzer, Randall Scharien, Rasmus Tonboe, John Yackel, Jack Landy, David Clemens-Sewall, Arttu Jutila, David N. Wagner, Daniela Krampe, Marcus Huntemann, Mallik Mahmud, David Jensen, Thomas Newman, Stefan Hendricks, Gunnar Spreen, Amy Macfarlane, Martin Schneebeli, James Mead, Robert Ricker, Michael Gallagher, Claude Duguay, Ian Raphael, Chris Polashenski, Michel Tsamados, Ilkka Matero, and Mario Hoppmann

Data sets

Ku- and Ka-band polarimetric radar backscatter of Arctic sea ice between October 2019 and September 2020 J. Stroeve, V. Nandan, R. Tonboe, S. Hendricks, R. Ricker, and G. Spreen https://doi.org/10.5285/0caf5c54-9a40-4a96-a39b-b5c9c2863271

Optical IP Camera images (VIS\_INFRALAN\_01) at the remote sensing site on the ice floe during MOSAiC expedition 2019/2020 G. Spreen, M. Huntemann, R. Naderpour, M. Mahmud, A. Tavri, and L. Thielke https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.939362

Infrared camera raw data (ir\_variocam\_01) at the remote sensing site on the ice floe during MOSAiC expedition 2019/2020 G. Spreen, M. Huntemann, L. Thielke, R. Naderpour, M. Mahmud, and A. Tavri https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.940717

vishnu-seaice/KuKaPy: Python code to process Ku- and Ka-band polarimetric radar data (Version v1) vishnu-seaice https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7967058

Video supplement

Supplemental Video 1: CCTV Footage of the remote sensing footprint between 9 and 16 November 2019 from the MOSAiC Expedition Gunnar Spreen and Marcus Huntemann https://doi.org/10.5446/56641

Supplemental Video 2: Ranging Analysis of KuKa Radar on snow-covered Arctic sea ice during MOSAiC Expedition Rosemary Willatt and David Clemens-Sewall https://doi.org/10.5446/57132

Short summary

We show that wind redistributes snow on Arctic sea ice, and Ka- and Ku-band radar measurements detect both newly deposited snow and buried snow layers that can affect the accuracy of snow depth estimates on sea ice. Radar, laser, meteorological, and snow data were collected during the MOSAiC expedition. With frequent occurrence of storms in the Arctic, our results show that wind-redistributed snow needs to be accounted for to improve snow depth estimates on sea ice from satellite radars.