Quantifying the Complimentary Sensitivities of Active and Passive Microwave Measurements to Ice-Sheet Thermal Signatures

Accurately measuring the vertical temperature profiles of ice sheets and glaciers is important for providing observational constraints on how temperature impacts ice rheology and flow. Directly measuring englacial temperature is challenging, often involving resource-intensive boreholes. Ice-penetrating radars and radiometers have been utilized independently to probe englacial temperatures, highlighting the potential of remote sensing to collect glacier- and catchment-scale temperature data. Here, we investigate the sensitivity to temperature at depth of active and passive microwave systems and highlight the benefits of combining their measurements to constrain and improve top-to-bottom temperature retrievals. These simulations allow us to understand how each instrument performs when applied to the unique electromagnetic and geophysical properties found on an ice sheet, enabling us to tailor our system design and implementation in a target-informed acquisition and analysis approach.