Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 6: Oceanography

UP 6.3: Talk

Tuesday, March 6, 2018, 17:15–17:30, G 1.011

Geophysical noise in L-band satellite observations for thin sea ice thickness retrieval — •Catalin Patilea and Georg Heygster — University of Bremen, Institute of Environmental Physics, Bremen, Germany

Thin sea ice thickness can be retrieved from the L-band radiometer Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) based on observations at 40-50° incidence angle. At L-band (1.4 GHz) the atmosphere has a low impact on the brightness temperatures but there are other potential sources of noise.

(1) Microwave radiation passing through the ionosphere can undergo a rotation of the polarization vectors (Faraday rotation) keeping the same intensity but changing the polarization difference. (2) The brightness temperatures recorded by SMOS over the same areas during ascending and descending overpasses can vary due to unequal RFI filtering or in zones with high brightness temperature gradient (e.g. ice edges). (3) Galactic radiation contains the uniform cosmic background radiation and the variable hydrogen emission lines and continuum radiation, thus the reflected radiation recorded by SMOS varies with day of the year and position of the satellite on the orbit.

An assessment of the impact of these noise sources on the sea ice thickness retrieval will be presented.