Ku- and Ka-band polarimetric radar backscatter of Arctic sea ice between October 2019 and September 2020 - VERSION 1.0

This data set provides processed Ku- and Ka-band fully-polarimetric backscatter and derived polarimetric parameters from hourly scans, acquired using the KuKa radar, during Legs 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the 2019-2020 MOSAiC International Arctic Drift Expedition. Scans were acquired during winter (Legs 1 and 2), advanced melt (leg 4) and freeze-up (Leg 5) seasons, from various Remote Sensing (RS) sites, located in the MOSAiC ice floe. The first deployment of the KuKa radar was on 18 October 2019 at RS1 site and the radar was retreated (due to ice break up) on 18th November. The radar was redeployed on 29th November at RS2 site until 13th December when cracks were observed at the site and the instrument was turned off and moved to a safe location. The radar was redeployed at RS3 site and started measuring again on 21st December 2019 until 31st January 2020, after which the radar was taken off the RS site to conduct maintenance. The radar was not operational during Leg 3. During Leg 4, the radar was operational between 25th June and 19th July 2020, and later retreated back to the ship, for deployment in Leg 5. The radar was deployed on 24th August 2020 and operational until the end of the MOSAiC expedition. The dataset was collected by MOSAiC Team ICE participants and processed by Vishnu Nandan at the University of Manitoba, Canada.

This work was funded in part through NERC grant NE/S002510/1, the Canada 150 Chair Program and the European Space Agency PO 5001027396. The authors thank Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR) Postdoctoral Fellowship grant to Vishnu Nandan. The authors also thank the crew of R/V Polarstern and all scientific members of the MOSAiC expedition for their support in field logistics and field data collection.

***** PLEASE BE ADVISED TO USE VERSION 2.0 DATA *****

The VERSION 2.0 data set (see ''Related Data Set Metadata'' link below) has been corrected for a bug that was found in the original KuKa radar processing chain.

Alternate title: Polar Data Centre (PDC) record GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01437

Date (Publication): 2022-03-22

Citation identifier: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/dms/metadata.php?id= / GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01437

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
British Antarctic Survey		pdc@bas.ac.uk	Custodian
UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation	Stroeve, J., Nandan, V., Tonboe, R., Hendricks, S., Ricker, R., & Spreen, G.	pdc@bas.ac.uk	Originator

Maintenance and update frequency: Unknown

Keywords

NDGO0001

NERC OAI Harvesting

NERC_DDC

GCMD Parameter Valids

EARTH SCIENCE > Cryosphere > Sea Ice > Ice Depth/Thickness
EARTH SCIENCE > Cryosphere > Sea Ice > Ice Floes
EARTH SCIENCE > Cryosphere > Sea Ice > Snow Depth
EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Sea Ice > Ice Depth/Thickness
EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Sea Ice > Ice Floes
EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Sea Ice > Snow Depth

BAS Free-text keywords

Arctic
MOSAiC
backscatter
polarimetry
radar
scatterometry
sea ice
snow

Use limitation: This data is supplied under Open Government Licence v3.0 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: This data is supplied under Open Government Licence v3.0 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

Language: English

Topic category

Oceans

Begin date: 2019-10-19

End date: 2020-09-20

Reference system identifier: OGP / urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326

Distribution format

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Polar Data Centre - British Antarctic Survey		pdc@bas.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
http		GET DATA

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Domain consistency

Measure identification: INSPIRE / Conformity_001

Conformance result

Title: INSPIRE Data Specification on unknown theme Guidelines

Date

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: No

Statement: An experiment was done to investigate the response of the internal calibration loop in comparison to the KuKa radar''s response when a metal plate was placed on the surface. This serves as a vertical height reference for the Ku- and Ka-band radar returns, and demonstrates the response of the system to a flat, highly-scattering surface. The metal plate and calibration loop data are consistent and in good agreement with each other, which indicates that the shape of the return including internal reflections are well characterized in the calibration data. For more details, refer to https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2020-151.