A Study of Combined Active Passive Microwave Sounding of Ice Sheet Internal Temperature Profiling

Wideband radiometric measurements can be used to retrieve the internal temperature of ice sheet [1]. However, emission from ice sheet is affected by many factors including layering structure, density profile and grain size distribution. These factors are not well constrained due to the lack of ice sheet characterization data, and thus severely limit the ability to retrieve ice internal temperature profile using radiometric measurements. This paper presents a combined active and passive remote sensing approach, in which ice-penetrating radar provides information that constraint the ice sheet parameters, to improve estimation of ice internal temperature profile using radiometric measurements. In this study, radar reflectivity measurements are used for estimating ice density variations, which are input parameters for the ice sheet emission model. Model analysis of emission from ice layer with internal temperature and structural profiles, and comparison with SMOS data are conducted to assess the viability of the combined approach.