EtTect of frost flowers, rough saline snow and slush on the ERS-l SAR backscatter of thin Arctic sea-ice

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Abstract
We present ERS-l Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) backscatter measurements and scattering model calculations based on in situ data for thin Arctic sea ice covered with frost flowers, rough saline snow, or slush. The data were acquired in September–October 1991 during the ARCTIC–91 expedition when the air temperature dropped from O°C to –16°C. The ERS–I SAR signatures have a large variability and change rapidly due to environmental conditions. Rough and wet saline snow gave the highest backscattering coefficient of –6dB, whereas smooth slush gave the lowest of –16dB. Newly formed frost flowers gave an intermediate value of –14dB. Application of the backseattering model shows that surface scattering dominates in all cases, except possibly for new frost flowers. Two cases were found where the measured surfaces were too rough for the single scattering model to be used, which calls for multiple scattering effects to be included. Discrepancies between the model and measurements in the remaining cases were in general small or could be explained by inadequate sampling techniques.

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