Work

Active-passive microwave scattering in the Antarctica wind-glazed region: an analog for icy moons of Saturn

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: . Microwave radiometry and scatterometry, two complimentary modes of sensing the composition and structure of the top meters to hundreds of meters of the subsurface, are often difficult to reconcile, both on the Earth cryosphere and on icy moons of Saturn. To help interpret and model microwave scattering in porous, high-purity ices, we examine jointly 6.9 to 89 GHz AMSR2 radiometry in vertical (V) and horizontal (H) polarizations as well as 5.2 GHz ASCAT, 13.4 GHz QuikSCAT, and 13.5 GHz OSCAT scatterometry in the wind-glazed region of the East Antarctic ice sheet. The data are simulated using the Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer (SMRT) with a simplified snowpack with constant temperature and continuously increasing grain size and density with depth. For the first time, we show that scatterometry and 6.9 to 37 GHz radiometry at V polarization can be successfully simulated with a unique simple snowpack model, indicating that incoherent volume scattering on subsurface heterogeneities dominates both the active and passive signals. To also simulate H-polarized radiometry, a thin surface ice layer as observed in the wind-glazed regions is necessary. Additional complexity, such as seasonal temperature variations, surface roughness, or non-continuous density variations, is necessary to explain the 89 GHz data and HH-polarized backscatter. Meanwhile, applying the same approach to simulate simultaneously passive and active Ku-band observations of icy moons improves on previous attempts but remains unable to reproduce the very high backscatter observed, highlighting the importance of coherent scattering and possibly unknown large (at least millimetric) icy structures in the subsurface.

Source: The cryosphere

DOI: 10.5194/tc-20-1297-2026