Backscatter values from scatterometers are commonly used to estimate wind field over oceans, their ability to monitor sea ice coverage, age and drift has been also demonstrated. Here, ASCAT backscatter coefficient has been processed for sea ice geophysical interpretation in order to increase the long time series of ice parameters already available. It has been shown that incidence- adjustment is mandatory for geophysical meaning, the backscatter maps enable the discrimination between multi year ice and first year ice, these maps can also be used as a basic product for sea ice drift estimation. (Copyright : European Space Agency ISBN 978-92-9221-239-1 ISSN 1609-042X)