Polarimetric radar scattering measurements of laboratory grown sea ice

Polarimetric radar scattering measurements were made of saline ice grown in an outdoor facility in support of a new Accelerated Research Initiative (ARI) of the Office of Naval Research. The ARI is multidisciplinary, encompassing active-and-passive optical, microwave, and millimeter-wave remote sensing; ice physics; and forward and inverse scattering modeling. The program objective includes the characterization and exploitation of the electromagnetic properties of sea ice with the ultimate goal to improve the retrieval of geophysical information using remote sensors. This will be accomplished by developing inverse modeling capabilities whose purpose is to retrieve at the highest level of detail the physical-electrical-chemical properties of polar sea ice. This paper describes the active microwave observations made during January 1993 and the relationship between sea ice and its microwave response at frequencies from 0.5-94 GHz