Retrieval of sea ice thickness using global navigation satellite system reflected signals

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to develop a model which can be used to retrieve sea ice thickness based on global navigation satellite system reflected signals at a shore-based platform. First, the method calculates the intensity ratio of the reflected signal and the direct signal of the global navigation satellite system satellite, which is the ratio of the power of the reflected signal to the power of the direct signal. Then, the information of the sea ice thickness is obtained according to the empirical model of the sea ice thickness. In order to verify the effectiveness of the method, the global navigation satellite system reflected signals were observed in the experiment in the Bayu enclosure of Liaoning Province, China. The results show that the sea ice thickness of the global navigation satellite system reflected signal is 10–20 cm, which is consistent with the synthetic-aperture radar observation.