Validation of remote-sensing products of sea-ice motion: a case study in the western Arctic Ocean

The accuracy of sea-ice motion products provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI-SAF) was validated with data collected by ice drifters that were deployed in the western Arctic Ocean in 2014 and 2016. Data from both NSIDC...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Glaciology
Main Authors: Dawei Gui, Ruibo Lei, Xiaoping Pang, Jennifer K. Hutchings, Guangyu Zuo, Mengxi Zhai
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2020
Subjects:
Ice drifter
Lagrangian trajectory
remote-sensing product
sea-ice motion
spatial-temporal variation
validation
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Meteorology. Climatology
QC851-999
Arctic
Arctic Ocean
Journal of Glaciology
National Snow and Ice Data Center
Sea ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.49
https://doaj.org/article/c0bb6118516341259d7259cc6e8c9792
Description
Summary:The accuracy of sea-ice motion products provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI-SAF) was validated with data collected by ice drifters that were deployed in the western Arctic Ocean in 2014 and 2016. Data from both NSIDC and OSI-SAF products exhibited statistically significant (p < 0.001) correlation with drifter data. The OSI-SAF product tended to overestimate ice speed, while underestimation was demonstrated for the NSIDC product, especially for the melt season and the marginal ice zone. Monthly Lagrangian trajectories of ice floes were reconstructed using the products. Larger spatial variability in the deviation between NSIDC and drifter trajectories was observed than that of OSI-SAF, and seasonal variability in the deviation for NSIDC was observed. Furthermore, trajectories reconstructed using the NSIDC product were sensitive to variations in sea-ice concentration. The feasibility of using remote-sensing products to characterize sea-ice deformation was assessed by evaluating the distance between two arbitrary positions as estimated by the products. Compared with the OSI-SAF product, relative errors are lower (<11.6%), and spatial-temporal resolutions are higher in the NSIDC product, which makes it more suitable for estimating sea-ice deformation.

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