Study of Lake Baikal Ice Cover from Radar Altimetry and In–Situ Observations

Abstract

Comparison of ENVISAT and SARAL missions data shows that AltiKa can be successfully used for ice discrimination methodology and extension of ice conditions time series. Due to shorter wavelength and large bandwidth (480 MHz) which leads to a higher sensitivity to different surface conditions, AltiKa shows more clearly the separation between open water and various ice types. We observe significant decrease of backscatter (25–30 dB) in late spring for both ENVISAT and SARAL and discuss it in the context of ice metamorphism. There is a clear need to continue and expand our dedicated field studies of lake Baikal ice cover to better assess influence of ice structure on altimetric signal.

Keywords:

• Ice cover
• Lake Baikal
• radar altimetry
• in situ observations

Acknowledgements

Altimetric data are provided by the Center for Topographic studies of the Oceans and Hydrosphere (CTOH) at LEGOS. We are grateful to Jean-Christophe Poisson (CLS, Toulouse, France), one anonymous reviewer, and the editor for the time and attention dedicated to the manuscript and for their constructive remarks.

Funding

This research is supported by the French CNES TOSCA “Lakes,” CNRS-Russia PICS “BaLaLaICA,” RFBR 13-05-91051, FZP 1.5, ANR “CLASSIQUE,” IDEX Transversalité InHERA, and FP7 MONARCH-A projects, as well as by CNRS-Russia GDRI “CAR-WET-SIB” and French-Siberian Centre for Education and Research.