The paper presents a comparison of sea ice concentration (SIC) derived from satellite microwave radiometry data and dedicated ship observations. For the purpose, the NASA Team (NT), Arctic Radiation and Turbulence Interaction Study (ARTIST) Sea Ice (ASI), and Variation Arctic/Antarctic Sea Ice Algorithm 2 (VASIA2) algorithms were used as well as the database of visual ice observations accumulated in the course of 15 Arctic expeditions. The comparison was performed in line with the SIC gradation (in tenths) into very open (1–3), open (4–6), close (7–8), very close and compact (9–10,10) ice, separately for summer and winter seasons. On average, in summer NT underestimates SIC by 0.4 tenth as compared to ship observations, while ASI and VASIA2 by 0.3 tenth. All three algorithms overestimate total SIC in regions of very open ice and underestimate it in regions of close, very close, and compact ice. The maximum average errors are typical of open ice regions that are most common in marginal ice zones. In winter, NT and ASI also underestimate SIC on average by 0.4 and 0.8 tenths, respectively, while VASIA2, on the contrary, overestimates by 0.2 tenth against the ship data, however, for open and close ice the average errors are significantly higher than in summer. In the paper, we also estimate the impact of ice melt stage and presence of new ice and nilas on SIC derived from NT, ASI, and VASIA2.

This is a review of methods of passive microwave satellite monitoring of the sea-ice cover in polar regions. We briefly describe the microwave radiometers launched into the Earth’s orbit and provide data used in studies of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. We give a detailed description of currently used algorithms for determining the sea-ice concentration and cover in polar regions according to satellite microwave radiometry. The methods for constructing these algorithms and their related drawbacks are considered. The final section of this paper briefly analyzes the studies that compare current algorithms with each other, with radar data, infrared data, and data of visual ship observations.

The paper suggests a model of dielectric properties of bound water in wet soils. The application of the model to the description of dielectric and radiophysical properties of wet soils in microwave...

Several dielectric models have been previously proposed to explain the permittivity of mixtures from the known dielectric constant and volume fractions of the constituents. The materials may be los...

The present report discusses a structure dependent model of emissivity of snow cover. A snow cover was represented by a medium comprised of discrete scatterers. In the case of dry snow, ice grains ...