ABSTRACT
Multisensor satellite monitoring of Arctic sea ice habitat is critical for understanding marine mammal ecology. However, periods of Arctic darkness and cloud cover preclude systematic data acquisition from multispectral optical systems. However, microwave sensors are not limited by illumination, clouds or fog. The measured radio brightness temperature (Tb) and the radar backscatter coefficient (σ0) depend only on the geophysical characteristics of sea ice (Comiso, 1983; Cavalieri et al., 1984; Kwok et al., 1992; Kwok and Cunningham, 1994; Swift et al., 1985; Fung, 1994).
