A new SAR inversion scheme for ocean waves travelling into sea ice

A theory is developed to explain imaging artifacts observed on SAR images of ocean waves travelling into sea ice. Simulation studies show that the change of wave energy, direction and wavelength visible on SAR scenes can be explained by damping of short ocean waves. Based on the new model a SAR inversion scheme for the marginal ice zone is developed, yielding estimates for two dimensional ocean wave spectra and sea ice damping parameters.