As Arctic sea ice decreases in extent and thickness, the ability to accurately monitor these changes is critical. Historically, NASA platforms such as the Ice, Cloud, land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2) have provided data on the temporal and spatial patterns of sea ice thickness change, but gaps remain.
More recently, researchers investigated the possibility that NASA's Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) platform, which carries a wide-swath Ka-band interferometric altimeter (KaRIn), could be used to capture two-dimensional estimates of sea ice thickness. In a new Data in Action story, researchers from NASA’s Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) detail how SWOT may deliver critical data that researchers need to quantify exchanges between sea ice, the atmosphere, and the ocean—details that current altimeters cannot provide.
Read "Potential of SWOT for Sea Ice Monitoring Unveiled" to learn more.