Polarimetric backscattering signatures from thin saline ice under controlled laboratory conditions

The authors carried out an experiment to measure polarimetric backscattering signatures from thin ice at the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. The purpose of the experiment is to provide data for understanding scattering mechanisms in sea ice to develop models relating polarimetric signatures to physical, morphological, and electromagnetic properties of sea ice. Saline ice was grown in an indoor pit with the air temperature kept about -20°C to simulate the cold arctic condition. During the ice growth, a C-band polarimetric scatterometer was used to acquire backscattering matrices as functions of incident angles for ice thicknesses up to 12 cm. Moreover, the authors investigated polarimetric signatures of thin ice under various modified conditions including frost flower, ice warming, surface flooding, and slush layer. Ice characterization parameters and samples were collected to relate ice properties to the microwave polarimetric signatures