A Method to Determine the Margins of High Sea Ice Concentration Using AMSR-E Passive Microwave Imagery

Abstract

The margin of the sea ice with high sea ice concentration is a principal feature in microwave image and a hotspot in image recognition. A method for determining the margins is developed using the feature of dual-polarized brightness temperatures at 36.5 GHz and a new parameter (contrast ratio) is used in this paper. For the microwaves, the ratio of the horizontal-polarized emissivity to the vertical-polarized emissivity is approximately equal to the ratio between horizontal-polarized and vertical-polarized brightness temperatures of sea surface, which called as the dual-polarized emissivity ratio in this study. It is found that the dual-polarized emissivity ratio of sea ice with nearly 100% sea ice concentration in Arctic at 36.5 GHz band has a value ranged between 0.92 and 0.96, as shown by satellite-observed data in figure of horizontal-po-larized brightness temperature versus vertical-polarized brightness temperature. From open water to sea ice covered area, the contrast-ratio can show the changing features of the dual-polarized brightness temperature at 36.5 GHz. The contrast ratio rapidly changes at the ice margins and its gradient appears an extreme value when the ratio changes around 0.92. This extreme value is examined by the ice concentration calculated by the MODIS data. And the results indicate that the threshold ratio coincides with the contour line of 96% sea ice concentration. So the parameter of contrast ratio could be used to determine the position of margins in microwave image.