Effects of snow cover on sea ice emission

An emission model for a multilayered dense inhomogeneous media is developed and applied in the analysis of the effects of snow cover on sea ice emission from 6.7 GHz through 90 GHz. The model is developed based on the matrix doubling formulation, and accounts for full incoherent interactions inside the snow and sea ice layers. The effects of close spacing and first order coherent interactions between scatterers inside the snow and sea ice layers are included in the model via the dense medium phase matrix. The dense medium phase matrix is derived using the concept of three-dimensional random array of scatterers. The rough interfaces of the air-snow, snow-ice, and ice-water boundaries are modeled using the IEM rough surface model. Model predictions agree well with field measurements reported in the literature. Model predictions show a higher brightness temperature (emissivity) of the snow-covered sea ice at 37 GHz than at 6.7 GHz. The emissivity decreases as frequency increases from 37 GHz to 90 GHz. This frequency behavior have been observed in various field experiments. The emissivity of the snow-covered sea ice decreases when either the snow volumetric water content decreases or the snow grain size increases.