Assessment of snow depth retrievability from passive microwave observations over Arctic sea ice: a global sensitivity analysis

Yan, Ziyu; Ye, Yufang; Heygster, Georg; Cheng, Bin; Gabarró, Carolina; Hernández-Macià, Ferran; Cheng, Xiao

doi:10.5194/tc-20-6157-2026

Articles | Volume 20, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-6157-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-6157-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 11

Research article

|

30 Oct 2026

Research article |

| 30 Oct 2026

Assessment of snow depth retrievability from passive microwave observations over Arctic sea ice: a global sensitivity analysis

Ziyu Yan, Yufang Ye, Georg Heygster, Bin Cheng, Carolina Gabarró, Ferran Hernández-Macià, and Xiao Cheng

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-6157-2026-supplement

Data sets

Snowpit raw data collected during the MOSAiC expedition A. R. Macfarlane et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.935934

MicroCT density and specific surface area snowpit profiles during the MOSAiC expedition A. R. Macfarlane et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.952794

Snowpit temperature profiles measured during the MOSAiC expedition A. R. Macfarlane et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.940200

Snowpit salinity profiles during the MOSAiC expedition A. R. Macfarlane et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.946807

First-year sea-ice salinity, temperature, density, nutrient, oxygen and hydrogen isotope composition from the main coring site (MCS-FYI) during MOSAiC legs 1 to 4 in 2019/2020 M. Oggier et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.971385

Second-year sea-ice salinity, temperature, density, nutrient, oxygen and hydrogen isotope composition from the main coring site (MCS-SYI) during MOSAiC legs 1 to 4 in 2019/2020, version 2 M. Oggier et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.974764

Short summary

Passive microwave retrieval of snow depth remains constrained by snow and ice conditions. By combining the Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer model with global sensitivity analysis, this study quantifies how snow grain radius, density, and sea ice type affect snow depth retrievability across channels. The small grain radius of new snow limits retrieval performance and increases its sensitivity to sea ice type, while the use of the 89 GHz channel may help address this limitation.