SSM/I Sea Ice Products Validation

• Main Authors: Jentz, R., Wackerman, C., Shuchman, R.
• Other Authors: ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH INST OF MICHIGAN ANN ARBOR
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1991
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; Active & Passive Radar Detection & Equipment; *RADAR IMAGES; *SEA ICE; *SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR; *ARCTIC REGIONS; PARAMETERS; AIRBORNE; RESOLUTION; PASSIVE SYSTEMS; MICROWAVE EQUIPMENT; HIGH RESOLUTION; METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITES; ESTIMATES; ICE; IMAGES; CONCENTRATION(COMPOSITION); GEOPHYSICS; TEXTURE; MICROWAVE FREQUENCY; OPEN WATER; RIDGES; BEAUFORT SEA; SATELLITE PHOTOGRAPHY; DETECTORS; SCATTERING; BERING SEA; ALGORITHMS; SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; SSM/I(SPECIAL SENSOR MICROWAVE/IMAGER); ICE CONCENTRATION; ICE RIDGES; Arctic; Bering Sea; Beaufort Sea; Ice; permafrost; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA242491; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA242491

The Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), which is part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), is a coarse resolution passive microwave sensor with good aerial coverage of the Arctic region. Since the SSM/I sensor produces nearly full coverage of the Arctic region each day, data generated by this sensor is used to obtain geophysical parameters associated with the Arctic area. An algorithm has been developed at Goddard Space Flight Center which produces both multiyear and total ice concentration estimates from SSM/I data. This paper presents comparisons between these SSM/I derived ice concentration estimates and estimates derived from high resolution SAR data that was collected co-incident to the SSM/I overpass. Data from the Beaufort and Bering Seas collected in March of 1988 is used and both the multilayer concentration algorithm and the total ice concentration algorithm are compared. A discrepancy between the two estimates is analyzed and a possible explanation based on the scattering from ridging in first-year ice is presented.