Arise (Antarctic Remote Ice Sensing Experiment) in the East 2003: validation of Satellite-derived Sea-ice data products

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Preliminary results are presented from the first validation of geophysical data products (ice concentration, snow thickness on sea ice (h s)and ice temperature (T I ) from the NASA EOS Aqua AMSR-E sensor, in East Antarctica (in September-October 2003). The challenge of collecting sufficient measurements with which to validate the coarse-resolution AMSR-E data products adequately was addressed by means of a hierarchical approach, using detailed in situ measurements, digital aerial photography and other satellite data. Initial results from a circumnavigation of the experimental site indicate that, at least under cold conditions with a dry snow cover, there is a reasonably close agreement between satellite-and aerial-photo-derived ice concentrations, i.e. 97.2 AE 3.6% for NT2 and 96.5 AE 2.5% for BBA algorithms vs 94.3% for the aerial photos. In general, the AMSR-E concentration represents a slight overestimate of the actual concentration, with the largest discrepancies occurring in regions containing a relatively high proportion of thin ice. The AMSR-E concentrations from the NT2 and BBA algorithms are similar on average, although differences of up to 5% occur in places, again related to thin-ice distribution. The AMSR-E ice temperature (T I ) product agrees with coincident surface measurements to approximately 0.58C in the limited dataset analyzed. Regarding snow thickness, the AMSR h s retrieval is a significant underestimate compared to in situ measurements weighted by the percentage of thin ice (and open water) present. For the case study analyzed, the underestimate was 46% for the overall average, but 23% compared to smooth-ice measurements. The spatial distribution of the AMSR-E h s product follows an expected and consistent spatial pattern, suggesting that the observed difference may be an offset (at least under freezing conditions). Areas of discrepancy are identified, and the need for future work using the more extensive dataset is highlighted.

Sea ice as an evaluation target for HEM modelling and inversion

“…In September-October 2003, an Australian-led international experiment dedicated to sea ice remote sensing validation (Massom et al, 2006), took place onboard the icebreaker RV AURORA AUSTRALIS in the east Antarctic marginal sea ice zone (ARISE 03). During three days on an extended ice station almost one thousand drill hole ice thickness measurements were made along three profiles.…”

Antarctic Sea-Ice Thickness Retrieval from ICESat: Inter-Comparison of Different Approaches

“…I " F ρ water ρ water´ρi ce (9) In order to evaluate whether Equations (8) and (9) provide reasonable estimates of the sea-ice thickness we computed R, ρi ce , and the sea-ice thickness for in situ measurements of the following Antarctic expeditions: GLOBEC in 2002 [44], ARISE in 2003 [45], ISPOL in 2004 [46], SIMBA in 2007 [47] and SIPEX-I in 2007 [48]. The majority of the in situ measurements carried out during these cruises took place in September/October.…”

East Antarctic Landfast Sea Ice Distribution and Variability, 2000–08

“…To produce a SAR interferogram, two complex SAR images are required (separated by a suitable spatio-temporal baseline), and phase information is retained for each pixel. One image is conjugated, then the images are multiplied on a per-pixel basis (Massom et al, 2006b). The resulting phase is then extracted, producing the interferogram.…”