Analysis of AMSR2 89GHz measurements over the Arctic sea ice in January 2015

Variability of the sea ice vertically and horizontally polarized microwave radiation at 89GHz in January 2015 is studied on the basis of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) measurements from GCOM-W1 satellite. Physical modeling of the microwave radiation transfer in the sea-ice-atmosphere system under non-scattering conditions is used to get the functional dependency of the sea ice microwave radiation at 89GHz on AMSR2 measured brightness and profiles of the atmospheric meteorological parameters. This derived functional dependence is further used to calculate and analyze the brightness temperatures (BTs) of the sea ice microwave radiation. Era-Interim re-analysis data on the profiles of the atmospheric meteorological parameters are explored in the BT calculations. Totally consolidated sea ice areas are selected on the basis of the Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image expert analysis. Era-Interim data on the sea ice temperature are also used to downscale the sea ice BTs to the sea ice emissivities at 89 GHz on vertical and horizontal polarization.