HR: 08:30h
AN: C21C-03 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: ICESat: Sea ice freeboard, snow depth, and thickness
AU: * Kwok, R
EM: ron.kwok@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States
AB: Total freeboard (snow and ice) and thickness of the Arctic Ocean sea ice cover are derived from ICESat data for two 35-day periods: one during the fall (Oct-Nov) of 2005 and the other during the winter (Feb-Mar) of 2006. Our freeboard retrieval approach is based on reflectivity and the expected statistics of freeboard variability from combined analysis of RADARSAT/ICESat data. Results suggest that our retrieval procedures could provide consistent freeboard estimates along 25-km segments with uncertainties of better than several centimeters. With a climatology of snow density, ECMWF snowfall is used to construct a time-varying field of snow depth for the conversion of freeboard to sea ice thickness. The derived ice thickness estimates are compared with ice draft observations from moored upward looking sonar data and the snow depth/thickness data from mass balance buoys in the Beaufort Sea. Preliminary results show that the estimated ICESat thickness estimates are within 0.5 m of the ice drafts reported by moorings. In this talk, we highlight some of the issues associated with the process of freeboard retrieval, thickness estimation, and quality assessment due to the disparity of spatial resolution between the ICESat footprint and those from in-situ measurements.
DE: 0750 Sea ice (4540)
DE: 0758 Remote sensing
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting