Snow Depth Retrieval on Arctic Sea Ice Using Under-Ice Hyperspectral Radiation Measurements

Abstract

Radiation transmitted through sea ice and snow has an important impact on the energy partitioning at the atmosphere-ice-ocean interface. Snow depth and ice thickness are crucial in determining its temporal and spatial variations. Under-ice surveys using autonomous robotic vehicles to measure transmitted radiation often lack coincident snow depth and ice thickness measurements so that direct relationships cannot be investigated. Snow and ice imprint distinct features on the spectral shape of transmitted radiation. Here, we use those features to retrieve snow depth. Transmitted radiance was measured underneath landfast level first-year ice using a remotely operated vehicle in the Lincoln Sea in spring 2018. Colocated measurements of snow depth and ice thickness were acquired. Constant ice thickness, clear water conditions, and low in-ice biomass allowed us to separate the spectral features of snow. We successfully retrieved snow depth using two inverse methods based on under-ice optical spectra with 1) normalized difference indices and 2) an idealized two-layer radiative transfer model including spectral snow and sea ice extinction coefficients. The retrieved extinction coefficients were in agreement with previous studies. We then applied the methods to continuous time series of transmittance and snow depth from the landfast first-year ice and from drifting, melt-pond covered multiyear ice in the Central Arctic in autumn 2018. Both methods allow snow depth retrieval accuracies of approximately 5 cm. Our results show that atmospheric variations and absolute light levels have an influence on the snow depth retrieval.

Light Under Arctic Sea Ice in Observations and Earth System Models

“…Distribution is log‐normal, reflecting an exponential dependence on normally‐distributed predictors. Three‐quarters of variations in the log of transmittance come from snow depth, consistently with Baltic Sea (Arst et al., 2006; Kari et al., 2020) and Arctic (Anhaus et al., 2021) observations, indicating an important role for snow in the light intensity under the sea ice. Other environmental parameters (melt ponds, ice thickness and Chl‐a in sea ice) have detectable effects, consistent with previous Arctic work (see e.g., Frey et al., 2011; Katlein et al., 2015; Mundy et al., 2007), but play a role at specific times of the year.…”

Seasonality of spectral radiative fluxes and optical properties of Arctic sea ice during the spring-summer transition

“…The melting snow increases the light transmittance and the amount of downwelling solar irradiance penetrating through the snow-covered sea ice, which impacts the physical and biological processes underneath the sea ice cover (e.g., Anhaus et al, 2021;Ardyna et al, 2020;Katlein et al, 2019;Perovich et al, 2008;Perovich and Richter-Menge, 2015). On the aggregate scale, approximately 8 % of the incident solar irradiance is transmitted into the ocean underneath in one year (Perovich 2005).…”