New publication on coherent backscatter enhancement of radio waves in snow

This Open Access publication in the journal The Cryosphere is the first to characterize the coherent backscatter opposition effect for the Earth's snow cover with bistatic radar experiments from ground and from space.

by Marcel Stefko
Enlarged view: A graph showing the coherent backscatter opposition effect (CBOE) occurring in seasonal snow at Ku-band, and in deep-firn at X-band.
The CBOE detection in seasonal snow at Ku-band, and in deep-firn at X-band.

The coherent backscatter opposition effect (CBOE) can enhance the intensity of radar backscatter from dry snow by up to a factor of 2. Despite widespread use of radar backscatter data by snow scientists, this effect has received notably little attention. In this publication, we characterized for the first time this effect for the Earth's snow cover with bistatic radar experiments from ground and from space. We were also able to retrieve scattering and absorbing lengths of snow at Ku- and X-band frequencies.
 

Stefko, M., Leinss, S., Frey, O., and Hajnsek, I.: Coherent backscatter enhancement in bistatic Ku- and X-band radar observations of dry snow, The Cryosphere, 16, 2859–2879, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2859-2022, 2022.

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