Comparison of helicopter-borne thin sea ice thickness profiles with polarimetric signatures of dual-pol Terrasar-X data

In this paper first results of a sensitivity study using dual polarimetric TerraSAR-X data for ice thickness estimation are presented. The sea ice thickness reference data set was measured, coincident to the SAR data take, by means of a helicopter-borne EM sounding device on April 28, 2008 in the Russian Arctic. For some of the signatures, namely the complex correlation coefficient, a relation to ice thickness could be found that is theoretically predicted for L-band SAR. The first results show, that the new generation of polarimetric space borne SAR sensors like TerraSAR-X may open a new opportunity for thin sea ice thickness monitoring from space.