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Arctic freeboard and snow depth from near-coincident CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 (CRYO2ICE) observations: A first examination during winter 2020-2021
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  • Renée Mie Fredensborg Hansen,
  • Henriette Skourup,
  • Eero Rinne,
  • Knut Vilhelm Høyland,
  • Jack Christopher Landy,
  • Ioanna Merkouriadi,
  • Rene Forsberg
Renée Mie Fredensborg Hansen
Technical University of Denmark

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Henriette Skourup
National Space Insitute, DTU Space
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Eero Rinne
University Centre of Svalbard (UNIS)
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Knut Vilhelm Høyland
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
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Jack Christopher Landy
University of Tromsø - The Artic University of Norway
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Ioanna Merkouriadi
Finnish Meteorological Institute
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Rene Forsberg
Danmarks Tekniske Universitet
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Abstract

In the summer of 2020, ESA changed the orbit of CryoSat-2 to align periodically with NASA’s ICESat-2 mission, a campaign known as CRYO2ICE, which allows for near-coincident CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 observations in space and time over the Arctic. This study investigates the CRYO2ICE radar and laser freeboards acquired by CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2, respectively, during the full winter season of 2020–2021, and derives snow depths from their differences. As expected, the ICESat-2 signal is backscattered at a surface above the elevation of the CryoSat-2 signal. CRYO2ICE snow depths are thinner than the daily model- or passive-microwave-based snow depth composites used for comparison, where differences are most pronounced in the Atlantic and Pacific Arctic. These observations show the exciting potential for along-track dual-frequency observations of snow depth from the future Copernicus mission CRISTAL; but also highlight uncertainties in radar penetration and the length scales of snow topography that still require further research.
06 Jun 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
07 Jun 2023Published in ESS Open Archive