Though the sea ice cover around Antarctica is primarily 
seasonal, no conclusion can be made from this study that a 
similar trend as revealed is occurring with regards to sea ice 
thickness. Imperative is the development of an improved way of 
assessing the Antarctic sea ice cover with regards to its 
thickness. The European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 may offer 
this development, as the interpretation of its waveform may 
shed light on snow depth. This is crucial to fully assess the 
thickness of seasonal Antarctic se ice. 
This study is a basis to derive sea ice thickness maps in this 
specific region which requires information of snow on top of 
the sea ice. 
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7. ACKNOWLEDMENTS 
ICESat data is provided by the National Snow & Ice Data 
Centre, Boulder, Colorado. Gratitude is given to participants in 
the 2009 HL field work measurements. The field work was 
supported by Antarctica New Zealand in event K053 and K063.