Developing Automated Analysis Methods for Sea Ice Imagery: A Status Report with Recommendations

• Main Author: Fetterer, Florence M.
• Other Authors: NAVAL RESEARCH LAB STENNIS SPACE CENTER MS
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1993
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; Cybernetics; Active & Passive Radar Detection & Equipment; *METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITES; *ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE; *SEA ICE; REQUIREMENTS; PREDICTIONS; MODELS; REAL TIME; STATISTICS; FORECASTING; INFRARED IMAGES; PLANNING; BEAUFORT SEA; HEIGHT FINDING; REMOTE DETECTION; ONBOARD; ALTIMETERS; OCEANS; RADIOMETERS; ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES; SURVEYS; ICE; PROTOTYPES; MICROWAVES; RADAR; SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR; HIGH RESOLUTION; PE62435N; WUDN256010; GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITES; REMOTE SENSING; AVHRR(ADVANCED VERY HIGH RESOLUTION RADIOMETER); Beaufort Sea; Ice; permafrost; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA267284; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA267284

The 1990's will see a rapid increase in the amount of satellite data available for the analysis and forecasting of sea ice conditions. Planning is underway to bring altimetry from the Geosat Follow-on satellite, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery from the European Space Agency's Earth Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1), Canada's Radarsat, and Japan's Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-1) to the Navy/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Joint Ice Center (JIC). In addition, JIC will continue to rely on visible and infrared imagery from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor on the NOAA series of polar-orbiting satellites, and passive microwave data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/1) onboard the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites. JIC has relied on manual analysis of AVHRR imagery in the past. The introduction of data from new sources will require automated methods for quickly and accurately analyzing data without necessitating additional personnel. This report surveys automated analysis methods which are being explored in the sea ice research community. Recommendations are made concerning automated analysis methods which are likely candidates for development under the Remote Sensing Applications Branch's 6.2 program, followed by transition to operational use at JIC. The long-term goal of 6.2 ice work is an automated system for near-real-time analysis and forecasting of ice conditions that uses all data available at JIC. Four milestones emerge as instrumental in meeting this goal, given the present status of automated analysis research, resources, and JIC requirements. . Remote sensing, Artificial intelligence, Data assimiliation, Satellite data.