Error Analysis of Real-Time Remotely Sensed Microwave Sea-Ice Motions in the Western Arctic Ocean

• Main Author: Carsten, David M.
• Other Authors: NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: Physical and Dynamic Oceanography; Snow; Ice and Permafrost; Miscellaneous Detection and Detectors; *REMOTE DETECTION; *SEA ICE; *MICROWAVE OPTICS; ALGORITHMS; REAL TIME; THESES; ERROR ANALYSIS; SONOBUOYS; OCEANOGRAPHY; ARCTIC OCEAN; IN SITU ANALYSIS; *SSMI(SPECIAL SENSOR MICROWAVE IMAGERS); Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Ice; permafrost; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA386446; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA386446

An algorithm used to composite SSM/I 85.5 GHz imagery and derive sea ice motion was adapted for operational testing at Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Command (FNMOC). A feature tracking technique was applied to a 6-month period, with data provided by FNMOC and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Ice motions are detectable using the SSM/I motion algorithm, and fields of SSM/I motion vectors are qualitatively consistent with coincident fields of in situ buoy motion vectors. Accuracy of the SSM/I motion vectors relative to buoy motion vectors increase significantly with buoy speed. No correlation between SSM/I and buoy motion vectors is observed for speeds below 3 cm/s and correlation increases significantly above 5 cm/s. The results are very sensitive to compositing techniques used to combine SSM/I passes into a single sea ice representation. FNMOC data was composited using a "drop-in-the-bucket" technique while NRL data was composited by a bilinear interpolation technique. Significantly poorer results were found with ENMOC composited data.