BUSINESS PROCESS

SD, SC, SCE, IN, SO (see Annex)

DESCRIPTION OF GEOINFORMATION

Ice thickness refers to the distance between the top surface of a body of ice and the underlying water

EO INFORMATION OF INTEREST

Sea Ice Thickness (SIT)

Available from 1981 to ongoing at a variety of spatial and temporal resolution

MAIN PROCESS STEPS

Satellites equipped with altimeters use laser beams to measure the height of the ice surface above the underlying surface. By subtracting the known elevation of the land or water beneath the ice, ice thickness is retrieved. Assumptions are made to remove influence of snow cover.

INPUT DATA SOURCE

Altimeter data, snow cover thickness and density information

SPATIAL RESOLUTION AND COVERAGE

25-111km

ACCURACY / CONSTRAINS

The requirement to correct measurements for the snow depth introduces uncertainty into the measurement of sea ice freeboard

LIMITATIONS

The snow on top of sea ice complicates the estimation of the ice thickness, requiring the use of auxiliary information about snow depth and density. FORME

If known the portion of ice that has emerged because if this information is known, the volume of the portion of ice that is submerged can also be estimated.

TEMPORAL RESOLUTION/

Weekly mean, monthly mean

UPDATE FREQUENCY

Daily, yearly

DELIVERY / OUTPUT FORMAT

NetCDF, PNG, ASCII, XML

ACCESSIBILITY

Copernicus CMEMS, NSIDC DAAC