Polar+ Snow on Sea Ice is part of ESA's Scientific Data Exploitation element of the Earth Observation Envelope Program (EOEP-5). The Scientific Data Exploitation element aims at responding to the needs of the EO and Earth system science communities in terms of innovative methods, novel products, open science tools and new Earth science results.
Study Objectives
The primary objective of this project is to investigate multi-frequency approaches to retrive snow thickness over all types of sea surfaces in the Arctic and provide a state-of-the-art snow product. The recommendations are to:
- Better understand the snow depth penetration from laser, Ka and Ku band radar altimetry measurements as a function of the snow characteristics
- Collect, analyse and exploit the most extensive source of in-situ and airborne datasets
- Generate improved multi-sensor snow depth products over the Arctic sea ice
- Demonstrate the impact of these products for climate and operational applications
- Produce a scientific roadmap for ESA's future EO satellite mission to help address the scientific challenges and knowledge gaps of snow on sea ice
