Polar Sea Ice Detection with the CFOSAT Scatterometer

Polar sea ice is an important and sensitive indicator of climate change. The scatterometer onboard the China-France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSAT) is a Ku-band rotating fan-beam scatterometer with dual polarization capability and dedicated to the measurement of sea surface wind vectors. Because of the wide swath, it is also a good candidate for sea ice detection in the polar regions. The paper explorers a Bayesian sea ice detection method for the CFOSAT scatterometer. The performance of the approach is analyzed and validated against coincident sea ice concentration product of Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSMI). The results shows that the sea ice detection approach is feasible and effective. The resulting agreement between the sea ice maps of the CFOSAT scatterometer and sea ice concentration of SSMI is high.