On Sea Ice/Water Discrimination by Airborne Weather Radar

We consider a conceptual approach for the applicability of airborne weather radar for the sea ice/water discrimination and estimation of the sea ice age. The sea ice/water discrimination method suited for the airborne weather radar utilization is based on finding the minimum statistical distance of the measured normalized radar cross sections within a wide azimuth sector to the geophysical model functions of the sea ice and water, respectively. The sea ice age classification is based on the comparison of the normalized radar cross section value at a given incidence angle to the lower normalized radar cross section boundaries for the first-, second-, and multi-year ice. Implementation of the proposed methodology is considered for the C-band airborne weather radar operated in the ground mapping mode as a scatterometer scanning in a wide azimuth sector up to ±100°. We show explicitly that the proposed approach provides the enhancement of the conventional airborne weather radar functionality for the sea ice/water discrimination and sea ice age estimation either using stand-alone or joint measurements.