Abstract
Abstract. We present methods to utilise CryoSat-2 (CS-2) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mode data in operational ice charting. We compare CS-2 data qualitatively to SAR mosaics over the Barents and Kara seas. Furthermore, we compare the CS-2 to archived operational ice charts. We present distributions of four CS-2 waveform parameters for different ice types as presented in the ice charts. We go on to present an automatic classification method for CS-2 data which, after training with operational ice charts, is capable of determining open ocean from ice with a hit rate of > 90 %. The training data are dynamically updated every 5 days using the most recent 15 days of CS-2 data and operative ice charts. This helps the adaption of the classifier to the evolving ice/snow conditions throughout winter. The classifier is also capable of detecting three different ice classes (thin and thick first-year ice as well as old ice) with success rates good enough for the output to be usable to support operational ice charting. Finally, we present a near-real-time CS-2 product just plotting the waveform characteristics and conclude that even such a simple product is usable for some of the needs of ice charting.
Highlights
Our aim is to present new methods to utilise satellite altimeter measurements in operational ice charting
The pulse peakiness (PP), late-tail-to-peak-power ratio (LTPP), and leading-edge width (LEW) are derived from the waveform, and the stack standard deviation (SSD) is delivered in the L1B data product (Bouzinac, 2014)
We have demonstrated the use of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) altimeter, namely the SAR Interferometric Radar Altimeter (SIRAL)-2 onboard CS-2, to support operational ice charting
Summary
Our aim is to present new methods to utilise satellite altimeter measurements in operational ice charting. We present an automatic classification method to derive different ice stages of development from CryoSat-2 (CS-2) waveforms. This is different from the most common sea ice application of satellite altimeters today, which is measuring the freeboard and the thickness of Arctic winter sea ice; see for example Laxon et al (2013). Due to synthetic aperture radars (SARs) becoming the standard tool in operational sea ice charting, altimetry has developed into a method for climate research (Laxon et al, 2003, 2013; Giles et al, 2008; Kwok et al, 2009). Widely used in numerical weather prediction where fast delivery products from different altimeters in the open ocean are assimilated into weather models (Vidard et al, 2009)
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