Radar backscatter measurements over saline ice

Abstract

During the 1984 and 1985 winter seasons, radar backscatter measurements were performed on artificial sea ice at the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) at Hanover, New Hampshire. Radar data were collected at selected frequencies in the 4-17 GHz region for incidence angles from 0 to 60^° with like and cross polarizations. These measurements were performed on smooth, rough, bare and snow-covered saline ice and open water. Backscattering from ice increased with its thickness until the ice was about 1 cm thick and then decreased gradually with further growth. Rough ice and snow-covered ice gave similar returns at 13-6 GHz, but the scattering coefficients of snow-covered ice were lower than that of rough ice at 9-6 GHz. Depolarized scattering from smooth, thin ice and water were much lower than from rough ice and snow-covered ice.