Radar remote sensing of sea ice in the Polar regions

Research Project, 2014 – 2016

The objective is to continue development of algorithms for retrieval of sea ice parameters from satellite radar data. The main focus will be on estimation of sea ice thickness with radar altimeter data combined with information from synthetic aperture radar (SAR).
Algorithms for sea ice drift and sea ice concentration are available but will be improved and adapted to give suitable input data to a new sea ice thickness algorithm that will combine the information from radar altimetry and SAR data. The project will rely on archived data from the radar satellites Cryosat-2, Envisat, TerraSAR-X and ALOS and upcoming radar satellites like Sentinel-1, Sentinel-3 and ALOS-2. The main area of interest is the Fram Stright, the Barents Sea and surrounding areas in the Arctic region, and the Amundsen Sea in the Antarctic region.
The expected outcome of the project is:
A. An improved algorithm for retrieval of sea ice thickness from radar altimeter data
B. Improved algorithms for retrieval of sea ice drift and concentration from SAR data
C. A new sea ice thickness algorithm based on combination of radar altimeter and SAR data