Comparison of Arctic Sea Ice Thickness from Satellites, Aircraft, and PIOMAS Data

Remote Sensing

Jeffrey Key¹  Xuanji Wang²  Ron Kwok³  Jinlun Zhang⁴ 

[1] Center for Satellite Applications and Research, NOAA/NESDIS, Madison, WI 53706, USA;Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS)/Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), UW-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA;Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA;Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, 1013 NE 40th St., Seattle, WA 98105, USA;

关键词: sea ice thickness;    Arctic;    remote sensing;    satellite;    ICESat;    CryoSat-2;    SMOS;    IceBridge;    PIOMAS;    APP-x;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs8090713

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

In this study, six Arctic sea ice thickness products are compared: the AVHRR Polar Pathfinder-extended (APP-x), ICESat, CryoSat-2, SMOS, NASA IceBridge aircraft flights, and the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS). The satellite products are based on three different retrieval methods: an energy budget approach, measurements of ice freeboard, and the relationship between passive microwave brightness temperatures and thin ice thickness. Inter-comparisons are done for the periods of overlap from 2003 to 2013. Results show that ICESat sea ice is thicker than APP-x and PIOMAS overall, particularly along the north coast of Greenland and Canadian Archipelago. The relative differences of APP-x and PIOMAS with ICESat are −0.48 m and −0.31 m, respectively. APP-x underestimates thickness relative to CryoSat-2, with a mean difference of −0.19 m. The biases for APP-x, PIOMAS, and CryoSat-2 relative to IceBridge thicknesses are 0.18 m, 0.18 m, and 0.29 m. The mean difference between SMOS and CryoSat-2 for 0~1 m thick ice is 0.13 m in March and −0.24 m in October. All satellite-retrieved ice thickness products and PIOMAS overestimate the thickness of thin ice (1 m or less) compared to IceBridge for which SMOS has the smallest bias (0.26 m). The spatial correlation between the datasets indicates that APP-x and PIOMAS are the most similar, followed by APP-x and CryoSat-2.

【 授权许可】

Unknown