CryoSat2 Pre-Launch Validation Measurements on Arctic Sea Ice

One of the main goals of ESA’s CryoSat-2 mission are estimates of the sea-ice mass and mass balance. For this aim, CryoSat-2 is designed to retrieve high-quality thickness data for over sea ice through its onboard radar altimeter. Together with other satellite data products, these thickness data of sea ice and its snow cover will contribute to increasing our understanding of atmosphere-ice-ocean interaction and improve our ability to quantify observed changes.

Our validation measurements show that the penetration depth of the radar signal strongly depends on snow cover characteristics (seasonality and underlying ice type) and is often not the snow-ice interface, as commonly assumed. Validation transects, using airborne electromagnetic ice-thickness measurements, are shown to be a powerful tool for regional-scale validation experiments during different seasons.