The negative exponential form of the conditional probability of both differences in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) intensity and differences in thickness between neighbors is used as the basis of a representation of structural information in terms of textural information for sea ice. The analysis is based on a unique data set involving airborne SAR flights over the track of a submarine that simultaneously profiled ice thickness by means of an upwardly directed sonar. It is shown that both sets of data, namely, imagery and thickness, possess an identical conditional probability relationship. This probability is composed of both a fractal property for spatial separations and a simple negative exponential distribution for intensity or thickness differences for fixed separations. These properties allow for the derivation of two forms of information: textural and structural. An intercomparison of the structural information in terms of the textural information is offered for the same ice field as imaged by a SAR and measured from a submarine for its thickness. It is shown that the information curves for both the imagery and thickness have a similar geometrical form. It is demonstrated that three subranges within the information curves correspond to three visibly identifiable ice types and three thickness ranges associated previously with these ice types. It is suggested that an understanding of the transformation between the two sets of information states might provide estimated statistics of Arctic ice thickness from SAR imagery. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union