Sea ice parameters from microwave radiometry

Abstract

Microwave (MW) radiometry has been playing a key role for the observation of sea ice parameters at global scale for more than three decades now. Among these parameters are sea ice concentration, drift, and type. Recent advances in satellite technology and algorithm development enable to further expand the parameter range, to refine the spatial resolution, and to apply MW radiometry also at regional scale. The present paper informs about some key physical properties of sea ice. It informs briefly about data acquisition and about the most common retrieval techniques and gives examples of their application to MW data. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.