Improvement of MODIS-based winter sea-ice production estimates in Arctic polynyas by means of a model-based temperature adjustment scheme ...

• Main Authors: Preußer, Andreas, Heinemann, Günther, Schefczyk, Lukas, Willmes, Sascha
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: Arctic Ocean; Polynya; MODIS; Remote Sensing; Sea ice; Arctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10671566; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10671566

Abstract Knowledge of winter sea ice production in Arctic polynyas is an important prerequisite for estimating the dense water formation that drives vertical mixing in the upper ocean. Satellite techniques using relatively high-resolution thermal infrared data from MODIS in combination with atmospheric reanalysis data have proved to be a powerful tool for monitoring large and regularly forming polynyas and for resolving narrow thin ice areas (i.e. leads) along shelf breaks and across the Arctic Ocean. However, the selection of atmospheric data sets has a strong influence on the derived polynya characteristics, as it affects the calculation of heat loss to the atmosphere, which is determined by the local thin-ice thickness. To overcome this methodological ambiguity, we present a temperature adjustment algorithm that provides corrections to the 2&thinspl;m air temperature through MODIS ice surface temperatures. It thus reduces the differences in calculated surface heat fluxes that can result from the use ...