Sea ice topographic retrieval and statistical distributions using TanDEM-X imagery

Abstract:
Utilizing single-pass interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) holds promise for generating sea ice digital elevation models (DEMs) despite the natural dynamics of sea ice. A challenge remains in the accuracy of sea ice DEM generation through InSAR due to the inconsistencies in microwave’s penetration bias across various ice categories. This manuscript introduces a two-step approach for deriving sea ice DEMs (i.e., snow freeboard) from TanDEM-X data, encompassing diverse ice types. Implementing the proposed method enables the mapping of a sea ice topography over an expanse of 630km x 19km, which sheds light on the spatial distribution of sea ice elevation. For the region dominated by thicker and older ice, we found that the DEM deviates from the Gaussian distribution, aligning more fittingly with the exp-normal distribution.