Spectral linear mixing model applied to data from passive microwave radiometers for sea ice mapping in the Antarctic Peninsula

Abstract

This study proposes the use of a Spectral Linear Mixing Model (SLMM) on passive microwave data for mapping the concentration and area of young and/or first-year ice in the oceanic region located in the northwest of the Antarctic Peninsula. Sentinel-1A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data were used to estimate fraction images needed for subpixel analysis of passive microwave data acquired by the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I), and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) in the 19H, 19 V, 37H, and 37 V channels and polarizations. Sea ice concentrations estimated by the SLMM approach had a difference of 1.4% (13.6% standard deviation, 15.3% root mean square error) when compared to sea ice concentrations mapped using Sentinel-1A SAR data. The evolution in the total area covered by young and/or first-year ice with concentrations ≥ 15% showed a negative linear trend for the studied region from 1979 to 2018.