Detectability of thickness of sea ice using 3D-scanning radar

海冰厚度信息是预测寒区海冰长期变化的重要信息。我们一直在使用部署在门别市的X波段多普勒雷达观测海冰。观测到的海冰回波的三维空间分布反映了海冰面积的不规则性。然而，这种不规则性是否与海冰厚度有关还没有得到证实。因此，我们用飞机测量了海冰高度的水平分布，并将其与X波段多普勒雷达探测到的海冰高度的不规则性进行了比较。因此，两个数据的相关性非常好。这一事实表明，海冰的厚度可以通过三维扫描雷达估计。

Information of the thickness of sea ice is essential to predict a long-term change of the sea ice in the cold region. We have been observing sea ice using a X-band Doppler radar depoyed in Monbetsu city. Three-dimensional disply of observed sea ice echo indicates an irregularity of the sea ice area. However, it is not confirmed whether this irregularity is related to thickenss of sea ice, or not. Therefore we measured horizontal distribution of the height of sea ice by using aircraft and compared it with the irregularity of the sea ice detected by the X-band Doppler radar. As a result, both data correlated very well. This fact demonstrates that thickness of the sea ice could estimate by a three dimensional scanning radar.