Design and Implementation of an Ice-Tethered Observation System for Melt Pond Evolution with Vision and Temperature Profile Measurements
Melt pond is one of the most significant and important features of Arctic sea ice in the summer and can dramatically reduce the albedo of ice, promoting more energy into the upper ocean. The observation of the seasonal evolution of melt pond can improve our fundamental understanding of the role and...
| Published in: | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse12071049 https://doaj.org/article/a33cf339a7364af4b38bc7e851e7cfbf |
| Summary: | Melt pond is one of the most significant and important features of Arctic sea ice in the summer and can dramatically reduce the albedo of ice, promoting more energy into the upper ocean. The observation of the seasonal evolution of melt pond can improve our fundamental understanding of the role and sensitivity of sea ice in the context of global climate change. In this study, an ice-tethered observation system is developed for melt pond evolution with vision and temperature profile measurements. The system composition, structure of the ice-tethered buoy, freeze-resistant camera, and thermistor chain are analyzed. A sealed shell and electric heating wires are used to increase the temperature to around the camera in low-temperature environments. The ice thickness and depth of melt pond can be inverted using a specific interface recognition algorithm. A low-light image enhancement strategy is proposed to improve the quality of images under the low lighting conditions in polar regions. The proposed system was tested in the second reservoir of Fen River, Yellow River, from 15 January to 27 January 2021. An artificial freshwater pond was used as the location for thermistor chain deployment and observation. The differences in mean square error (MSE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), and feature similarity index (FSIM) between the original and enhanced images indicate that the proposed algorithm is suitable for low-light image enhancement. The research on the ice-tethered observation system will provide a new framework and technical support for the seasonal observation for melt pond. |
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