Abstract
As a long-term, near real-time, and widely used satellite derived product, the summer performance of the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS)-based sea ice concentration (SIC) is commonly doubted when extensive melt ponds exist on the ice surface. In this study, three SSMIS-based SIC products were assessed using ship-based SIC and melt pond fraction (MPF) observations from 60 Arctic cruises conducted by the Ice Watch Program and the Chinese Icebreaker Xuelong I/II. The results indicate that the product using the NASA Team (SSMIS-NT) algorithm and the product released by the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (SSMIS-OS) underestimated the SIC by 15% and 7–9%, respectively, which mainly occurred in the high concentration rages, such as 80–100%, while the product using the Bootstrap (SSMIS-BT) algorithm overestimated the SIC by 3–4%, usually misestimating 80% < SIC < 100% as 100%. The MPF affected the SIC biases. For the high MPF case (e.g., 50%), the estimated biases for the three products increased to 20% (SSMIS-NT), 7% (SSMIS-BT), and 20% (SSMIS-OS) due to the influence of MPF. The relationship between the SIC biases and the MPF observations established in this study was demonstrated to greatly improve the accuracy of the 2D SIC distributions, which are useful references for model assimilation, algorithm improvement, and error analysis.
Highlights
Against the background of global warming, recent studies have clearly shown that the Arctic multi-year sea ice extent, thickness, and the fraction of multi-year ice have decreased significantly [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Sea ice concentrations based on passive microwave satellites are one of the most common products used for Arctic sea ice analysis, assimilation, modeling, and navigation due to their vast coverage, timely updating, and easy access
We evaluated three Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS)-based sea ice concentration (SIC) products: the NASA Team algorithm product (SSMIS-NT), the Bootstrap algorithm product (SSMIS-BT) by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the product combining the Bristol algorithm and the Bootstrap algorithm released by the OSI-SAF (SSMIS-OS)
Summary
Against the background of global warming, recent studies have clearly shown that the Arctic multi-year sea ice extent, thickness, and the fraction of multi-year ice have decreased significantly [1,2,3,4,5,6]. 5–10 days per decade since 1978 when satellite remote sensing began to be widely used for Arctic sea ice monitoring [7]. All of the changes to the Arctic sea ice are beneficial to the opening and utilization of Arctic passages in the summer. Since 2013, at least 40 Chinese commercial cruises have passed through the Arctic Northeast Passage in the summer, i.e., starting from Chinese ports, through the Bering Strait, along the Russian. Arriving in the Norwegian Sea (or the reverse). At least 2000 nautical miles and 10 days were saved for one single Arctic Northeast Passage cruise compared to the traditional China–Malacca–Suez–Europe cruise, which will lead to huge economic benefits. Sea ice in the polar regions, resulted in large challenges for the safe navigation of commercial vessels
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