Mapping Sea Ice Surface Topography in High Fidelity With ICESat-2

Abstract

The Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System on Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) offers a new remote sensing capability to measure complex sea ice surface topography. We demonstrate the retrieval of six sea ice parameters from ICESat-2/Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System data: surface roughness, ridge height, ridge frequency, melt pond depth, floe size distribution, and lead frequency. Our results establish that these properties can be observed in high fidelity, across broad geographic regions and ice conditions. We resolve features as narrow as 7 m and achieve a vertical height precision of 0.01 m, representing a significant advance in resolution over previous satellite altimeters. ICESat-2 employs a year-round observation strategy spanning all seasons, across both the Arctic and Southern Oceans. Because of its higher resolution, coupled with the spatial and temporal extent of data acquisition, ICESat-2 observations may be used to investigate time-varying, dynamic, and thermodynamic sea ice processes.