The Arctic Sea Ice Refractive Index Retrieval Based on Satellite AMSR-E Observations

The refractive index of sea ice in the polar region is an important geophysical parameter. It is needed as a vital input for some numerical climate models and is helpful to classifying sea ice types. In the present study, according to Hong Approximation (HA), we retrieved the arctic sea ice refractive index at 6.9, 10.7, 23, 37, and 89 GHz in different arctic climatological conditions. The refractive indices of wintertime first year (FY) sea ice and summertime ice were derived with average values of 1.78 similar to 1.75 and 1.724 similar to 1.70 at different frequencies respectively, which are consistent with previous studies. However, for multiyear (MY) ice, the results indicated relatively large bias between modeled results since 10.7 GHz. At a higher frequency, there is larger MY ice refractive index difference. This bias is mainly attributed to the volume scattering effect on MY microwave radiation due to emergence of massive small empty cavities after the brine water in MY ice is discharged into sea. In addition, the retrieved sea ice refractive indices can be utilized to classify ice types (for example, the winter derivation at 89 GHz), to identify coastal polynyas (winter retrieval at 6.9 GHz), and to outline the areal extent of significantly melting marginal sea ice zone (MIZ) (summer result at 6.9 GHz). The investigation of this study suggests an effective tool of passive microwave remote sensing in monitoring sea ice refractive index variability.