Uncertainty reduction of Arctic sea ice freeboard from CryoSat-2 interferometric mode

A very good agreement is found between average airborne and satellite radar freeboards although, at the CS2 footprint scale, they do not show along-track spatial correlation. It is observed that using the extra phase information, CS2 is able to detect leads up to 2300 m off-nadir. A reduction in the total random freeboard uncertainty of ∼40% is observed by taking advantage of the CS2 interferometric capabilities, which enable to include ∼35% of the waveforms discarded in the SAR-like scenario.