Polarimetric backscattering from thin saline ice related to ice physical and morphological characteristics

A model for polarimetric backscattering from thin saline ice, including volume and surface scattering mechanisms, is used to relate ice physical and morphological characteristics to the backscattering signatures obtained under controlled laboratory conditions. The model is based on the analytic wave theory and accounts for ellipsoidal brine inclusions, c-axis orientations, rough interfaces, vertical anisotropy, and permittivity tensor determined with brine volume governed by thermodynamic phase equations during the process of ice growth. A brine or slush cover layer is modelled in a layered configuration as a lossy layer with large permittivity magnitude due to the high salinity. The contribution to backscattering from rough interfaces is included with consideration of wave attenuation and phase difference effect in the anisotropic ice media