Snow depth on sea ice is a major source of uncertainty when measuring sea ice thickness in the polar regions. In a newly published article, CRiceS-researcher Rosemary Willatt and colleagues describe how a surface based radar instrument on sea ice during the MOSAiC Arctic expedition in 2020 has allowed collection of data that is used to develop new techniques to estimate the depth of overlying snow. The article was the cover story of the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters in October 2023. 

The researchers used different polarizations of the radiation to detect the depths of the upper and lower snow depth data set. The findings show that estimates of snow depth using two different radar frequencies were less accurate, whilst using information of the shape of the returning pulse of radiation also showed a relationship with the independent snow depths, though not as strong as the polarization method. These results indicate that polarimetry (using a new satellite mission) and/or waveform shape (using existing missions) could be used to estimate snow depth on sea ice from airborne or satellite platforms.

The article: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2023GL104461