CryoSat‐2 estimates of Arctic sea ice thickness and volume

Laxon, Seymour W.; Giles, Katharine; Ridout, A.; Wingham, D. J.; Willatt, Rosemary; Cullen, R.; Kwok, R.; Schweiger, Axel; Zhang, Jinlun; Haas, Christian; Hendricks, Stefan; Krishfield, Richard A.; Kurtz, N. T.; Farrell, S. L.; Davidson, Malcolm

doi:10.1002/grl.50193

Cited by 680 publications

(899 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…5. The CA region is dominated by old (Maslanik et al, 2011) and thick (Laxon et al, 2013) MYI, while the BC region contains a variable mix of FYI and MYI (Maslanik et al, 2011). To delineate the results based on the estimated ice type (FYI or MYI), we take the mean of all daily OSI-SAF ice type data within the dates of the relevant OIB yearly sea ice campaign.…”

Section: Individual Feature and Bulk Topography Statisticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing Arctic sea ice topography using high-resolution IceBridge data

et al. 2016

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Abstract. We present an analysis of Arctic sea ice topography using high-resolution, three-dimensional surface elevation data from the Airborne Topographic Mapper, flown as part of NASA's Operation IceBridge mission. Surface features in the sea ice cover are detected using a newly developed surface feature picking algorithm. We derive information regarding the height, volume and geometry of surface features from 2009 to 2014 within the Beaufort/Chukchi and Central Arctic regions. The results are delineated by ice type to estimate the topographic variability across first-year and multi-year ice regimes.The results demonstrate that Arctic sea ice topography exhibits significant spatial variability, mainly driven by the increased surface feature height and volume (per unit area) of the multi-year ice that dominates the Central Arctic region. The multi-year ice topography exhibits greater interannual variability compared to the first-year ice regimes, which dominates the total ice topography variability across both regions. The ice topography also shows a clear coastal dependency, with the feature height and volume increasing as a function of proximity to the nearest coastline, especially north of Greenland and the Canadian Archipelago. A strong correlation between ice topography and ice thickness (from the IceBridge sea ice product) is found, using a square-root relationship. The results allude to the importance of ice deformation variability in the total sea ice mass balance, and provide crucial information regarding the tail of the ice thickness distribution across the western Arctic. Future research priorities associated with this new data set are presented and discussed, especially in relation to calculations of atmospheric form drag.

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Section: Individual Feature and Bulk Topography Statisticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing Arctic sea ice topography using high-resolution IceBridge data

et al. 2016

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“…While the accuracy and the spatial coverage was sufficient to give evidence of 30 sea ice thinning in the Arctic and to provide a basis for simulating the trend, these data are of limited use for evaluating the spatial and temporal variability of sea ice across the Arctic, and in climate models. More recently, cryosphere-focused satellite altimeters such as the NASA Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and ESA CryoSat-2 (CS2) have allowed estimation of sea ice thickness across the Arctic (Giles et al, 2007, Kwok and Rothrock, 2009, Laxon et al, 2013.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New insight from CryoSat-2 sea ice thickness for sea ice modelling

Feltham¹,

Schröder²,

Tsamados³

2018

Preprint

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Abstract. Estimates of Arctic sea ice thickness are available from the CryoSat-2 (CS2) radar altimetry mission during ice growth seasons since 2010. We derive the sub-grid scale ice thickness distribution (ITD) with respect to 5 ice thickness categories used in a sea ice component (CICE) of climate simulations. This allows us to initialize the ITD in stand-alone 10 simulations with CICE and to verify the simulated cycle of ice thickness. We find that a default CICE simulation strongly underestimates ice thickness, despite reproducing the inter-annual variability of summer sea ice extent. We can identify the underestimation of winter ice growth as being responsible and show that increasing the ice conductive flux for lower temperatures (bubbly brine scheme) and accounting for the loss of drifting snow results in the simulated sea ice growth being more realistic. Sensitivity studies provide insight into the impact of initial and atmospheric conditions and, thus, on the role of 15 positive and negative feedback processes. During summer, atmospheric conditions are responsible for 50% of September sea ice thickness variability through the positive sea ice and melt pond albedo feedback. However, atmospheric winter conditions have little impact on winter ice growth due to the dominating negative conductive feedback process: the thinner the ice and snow in autumn, the stronger the ice growth in winter. We conclude that the fate of Arctic summer sea ice is largely controlled by atmospheric conditions during the melting season rather than by winter temperature. Our optimal model configuration does 20 not only improve the simulated sea ice thickness, but also summer sea ice concentration, melt pond fraction, and length of the melt season. It is the first time CS2 sea ice thickness data have been applied successfully to improve sea ice model physics.

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“…The capability of sea-ice thickness retrieval using satellite radar and laser altimetry data has been demonstrated for Arctic and Antarctic sea ice (Ricker et al, 2014;Laxon et al, 2013;Kurtz et al, 2014;Zwally et al, 2008;. The altimetry sea-ice thickness retrieval algorithm is based on estimations of freeboard, the height of the ice (ice freeboard) or snow surface (total or snow freeboard) above the local sea level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

About the consistency between Envisat and CryoSat-2 radar freeboard retrieval over Antarctic sea ice

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Knowledge about Antarctic sea-ice volume and its changes over the past decades has been sparse due to the lack of systematic sea-ice thickness measurements in this remote area. Recently, first attempts have been made to develop a sea-ice thickness product over the Southern Ocean from space-borne radar altimetry and results look promising. Today, more than 20 years of radar altimeter data are potentially available for such products. However, the characteristics of individual radar types differ for the available altimeter missions. Hence, it is important and our goal to study the consistency between single sensors in order to develop long and consistent time series. Here, the consistency between freeboard measurements of the Radar Altimeter 2 on board Envisat and freeboard measurements from the SyntheticAperture Interferometric Radar Altimeter on board CryoSat-2 is tested for their overlap period in 2011. Results indicate that mean and modal values are in reasonable agreement over the sea-ice growth season (May-October) and partly also beyond. In general, Envisat data show higher freeboards in the first-year ice zone while CryoSat-2 freeboards are higher in the multiyear ice zone and near the coasts. This has consequences for the agreement in individual sectors of the Southern Ocean, where one or the other ice class may dominate. Nevertheless, over the growth season, mean freeboard for the entire (regionally separated) Southern Ocean differs generally by not more than 3 cm (8 cm, with few exceptions) between Envisat and CryoSat-2, and the differences between modal freeboards lie generally within ±10 cm and often even below.

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CryoSat‐2 estimates of Arctic sea ice thickness and volume

Cited by 680 publications

References 22 publications

Characterizing Arctic sea ice topography using high-resolution IceBridge data

Characterizing Arctic sea ice topography using high-resolution IceBridge data

New insight from CryoSat-2 sea ice thickness for sea ice modelling

About the consistency between Envisat and CryoSat-2 radar freeboard retrieval over Antarctic sea ice

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