Initial Results from SAR-Based Validation of Sea Ice Drift Forecast Models ...

• Main Authors: Bathmann, Martin, Wiehle, Stefan, Frost, Anja, Rabenstein, Lasse, Spreen, Gunnar
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: Sea Ice; Forecast Model; Evaluation; Synthetic Aperture Radar; Remote Sensing; Arctic; Lagrangian Tracking; Runge-Kutta; TOPAZ; neXtSIM; Pyramid; Pyramid The; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7993888; https://zenodo.org/record/7993888

TOPAZ4 and neXtSIM sea ice drift forecast model data, provided in the CMEMS artic analysis and forecast products PHYS_002_001_a and PHY_ICE_002_011, is assessed using Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image pairs. This work helps to improve the high-resolution forecast Predictive Ice Image (PRIIMA) (https://business.esa.int/projects/priima) application which generates multi-day forecasted SAR scenes. Results of PRIIMA form the basis for the calculation of possible ship routes in ice-infested waters, which are then made accessible for navigators in near real-time. The true sea ice drift is derived from two successive Sentinel-1 scenes using phase correlation applied in a hierarchical resolution pyramid. The measured ice displacement vectors are compared to predicted drift trajectories derived from multi-day TOPAZ4 and neXtSIM forecasts available at acquisition time of the first SAR scene. Differences in sea ice drift direction and magnitude between models and actual SAR measurements are then analysed ...