An experimental study of microwave remote sensing of oil-contaminated young sea ice

This paper presents an experiment on remote sensing of oil infested sea ice, and the detection of this contaminant. To this end, an overview of our previously developed electromagnetic inversion algorithm is first presented. This algorithm has been able to reconstruct the complex permittivity profile of snow-covered sea ice, and also retrieve some of its thermodynamic and geophysical properties. Next, a description of our oil-in-sea ice experiment is presented in which crude oil is injected underneath an artificially-grown young sea ice as the resulting radar cross section response is temporally measured. The volume fraction of oil is then indirectly retrieved using the measured radar data via a modified inversion strategy. Although the reconstructed volume fraction is an over-estimation, it has a potential to trigger a warning system. Finally, the reasons behind this over-estimation are discussed.