Retrieval of snow accumulation rates

Sea level change is strongly linked to the state of the polar ice sheets. Hence, an evaluation of sea level change is only possible if the processes that influence ice sheet mass balance are sufficiently well-known. Still, it remains difficult to quantify surface accumulation, which is the net gain term of the balance equation. This is due to the fact that the polar ice sheets are difficult to access, and field measurements are relatively sparse.

In areas that do not experience melt, the microwave signal interacts with the snow volume and, in this way, contains information about the processes that helped shape the snow pack. Using an appropriate model, this information on, e.g., snow accumulation can be retrieved from the satellite signal.