Concentration and thickness of sea ice in the Weddell Sea from SSM/I passive microwave radiometer data

• Main Author: Hillebrand, Fernando Luis
• Language: unknown
• Published: Harvard Dataverse
• Subjects: Earth and Environmental Sciences; Spectral linear mixing model; Multiple linear regression; Sea ice concentration; Brightness temperature; Antarctic; Weddell Sea; Weddell; Antarc*; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QA8XD3

The leading information on sea ice thickness (SIT) is obtained through surface drilling, observations on ships, airborne electromagnetic induction techniques, upward-looking sonars and laser altimeters embedded in satellites. One limitation of these methods is in spatiotemporal studies elaboration on SIT seasonality. To evaluate the feasibility of other techniques, this study statistically analysed, during the freezing period, the relationship of brightness temperature (Tb) data of the 37V polarisation and the GR3719 (Gradient Ratio 37V and 19V) obtained by Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SMM/I) from F11 and F13 satellites with SIT data obtained in the Weddell Sea through Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate (ASPeCt) program. The multiple linear regression (MLR) was applied at 1,520 points, with 70% of these points being randomly separated to generate the MLR and 30% to carry out the validation. To perform the temporal mapping, the MLR was applied only to pixels with sea ice concentration (SIC) ≥ 90%, obtained through the fraction image calculated from the spectral linear mixing model (SLMM) using the Tb in the channels and polarizations 19H, 19V and 37V. The SIC mappings were validated with data from the passive sensor Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) and the SIT mappings with the Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimeter. In the validation of the MLR model, we found an R² = 0.57, RMSE = 0.268 m, and bias of 0.103 m.