Sea Ice Extent Detection in the Bohai Sea Using Sentinel-3 OLCI Data

• Published in: Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Hua Su, Bowen Ji, Yunpeng Wang
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2019
• Subjects: Bohai sea ice; sea ice extent; OLCI imagery; sea ice information index; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11202436

Sea ice distribution is an important indicator of ice conditions and regional climate change in the Bohai Sea (China). In this study, we monitored the spatiotemporal distribution of the Bohai Sea ice in the winter of 2017–2018 by developing sea ice information indexes using 300 m resolution Sentinel-3 Ocean and Land Color Instrument (OLCI) images. We assessed and validated the index performance using Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) images with higher spatial resolution. The results indicate that the proposed Normalized Difference Sea Ice Information Index (NDSIIIOLCI), which is based on OLCI Bands 20 and 21, can be used to rapidly and effectively detect sea ice but is somewhat affected by the turbidity of the seawater in the southern Bohai Sea. The novel Enhanced Normalized Difference Sea Ice Information Index (ENDSIIIOLCI), which builds on NDSIIIOLCI by also considering OLCI Bands 12 and 16, can monitor sea ice more accurately and effectively than NDSIIIOLCI and suffers less from interference from turbidity. The spatiotemporal evolution of the Bohai Sea ice in the winter of 2017–2018 was successfully monitored by ENDSIIIOLCI. The results show that this sea ice information index based on OLCI data can effectively extract sea ice extent for sediment-laden water and is well suited for monitoring the evolution of Bohai Sea ice in winter.