A comparison between Envisat and ICESat sea ice thickness in the Southern Ocean
The crucial role that Antarctic sea ice plays in the global climate system is strongly linked to its thickness. While field observations are too sparse in the Southern Ocean to determine long-term trends of the Antarctic sea ice thickness (SIT) on a hemispheric scale, satellite radar altimetry data...
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Copernicus Publications
2022
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ftnonlinearchiv:oai:noa.gwlb.de:cop_mods_00063184 2023-05-15T13:49:21+02:00 A comparison between Envisat and ICESat sea ice thickness in the Southern Ocean Wang, Jinfei Min, Chao Ricker, Robert Shi, Qian Han, Bo Hendricks, Stefan Wu, Renhao Yang, Qinghua 2022-10 electronic https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4473-2022 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00063184 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00062294/tc-16-4473-2022.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/4473/2022/tc-16-4473-2022.pdf eng eng Copernicus Publications The Cryosphere -- ˜Theœ Cryosphere -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2393169 -- http://www.the-cryosphere.net/ -- 1994-0424 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4473-2022 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00063184 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00062294/tc-16-4473-2022.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/4473/2022/tc-16-4473-2022.pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC-BY article Verlagsveröffentlichung article Text doc-type:article 2022 ftnonlinearchiv https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4473-2022 2022-10-31T00:12:06Z The crucial role that Antarctic sea ice plays in the global climate system is strongly linked to its thickness. While field observations are too sparse in the Southern Ocean to determine long-term trends of the Antarctic sea ice thickness (SIT) on a hemispheric scale, satellite radar altimetry data can be applied with a promising prospect. The European Space Agency's Sea Ice Climate Change Initiative project (ESA SICCI) generates sea ice thickness derived from Envisat, covering the entire Southern Ocean year-round from 2002 to 2012. In this study, the SICCI Envisat Antarctic SIT is first compared with an Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) SIT product retrieved with a modified ice density algorithm. Both data sets are compared to SIT estimates from upward-looking sonar (ULS) in the Weddell Sea, showing mean differences (MDs) and standard deviations (SDs, in parentheses) of 1.29 (0.65) m for Envisat − ULS (− denotes “minus” and the same below), while we find 1.11 (0.81) m for ICESat − ULS. The inter-comparisons are conducted for all seasons except for winter, based on the ICESat operating periods. According to the results, the differences between Envisat and ICESat SIT reveal significant temporal and spatial variations. More specifically, the smallest seasonal SIT MD (SD) of 0.00 m (0.39 m) for Envisat − ICESat is found in spring (October–November), while a larger MD (SD) of 0.52 (0.68 m) and 0.57 m (0.45 m) exists in summer (February–March) and autumn (May–June). It is also shown that from autumn to spring, mean Envisat SIT decreases while mean ICESat SIT increases. Our findings suggest that both overestimation of Envisat sea ice freeboard potentially caused by radar backscatter originating from inside the snow layer and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E, where EOS stands for Earth Observing System) snow depth biases and sea ice density uncertainties can possibly account for the differences between Envisat and ICESat SIT. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Southern Ocean The Cryosphere Weddell Sea Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA Antarctic Southern Ocean The Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea The Cryosphere 16 10 4473 4490 |
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Open Polar |
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Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA |
op_collection_id |
ftnonlinearchiv |
language |
English |
topic |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung Wang, Jinfei Min, Chao Ricker, Robert Shi, Qian Han, Bo Hendricks, Stefan Wu, Renhao Yang, Qinghua A comparison between Envisat and ICESat sea ice thickness in the Southern Ocean |
topic_facet |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
description |
The crucial role that Antarctic sea ice plays in the global climate system is strongly linked to its thickness. While field observations are too sparse in the Southern Ocean to determine long-term trends of the Antarctic sea ice thickness (SIT) on a hemispheric scale, satellite radar altimetry data can be applied with a promising prospect. The European Space Agency's Sea Ice Climate Change Initiative project (ESA SICCI) generates sea ice thickness derived from Envisat, covering the entire Southern Ocean year-round from 2002 to 2012. In this study, the SICCI Envisat Antarctic SIT is first compared with an Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) SIT product retrieved with a modified ice density algorithm. Both data sets are compared to SIT estimates from upward-looking sonar (ULS) in the Weddell Sea, showing mean differences (MDs) and standard deviations (SDs, in parentheses) of 1.29 (0.65) m for Envisat − ULS (− denotes “minus” and the same below), while we find 1.11 (0.81) m for ICESat − ULS. The inter-comparisons are conducted for all seasons except for winter, based on the ICESat operating periods. According to the results, the differences between Envisat and ICESat SIT reveal significant temporal and spatial variations. More specifically, the smallest seasonal SIT MD (SD) of 0.00 m (0.39 m) for Envisat − ICESat is found in spring (October–November), while a larger MD (SD) of 0.52 (0.68 m) and 0.57 m (0.45 m) exists in summer (February–March) and autumn (May–June). It is also shown that from autumn to spring, mean Envisat SIT decreases while mean ICESat SIT increases. Our findings suggest that both overestimation of Envisat sea ice freeboard potentially caused by radar backscatter originating from inside the snow layer and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E, where EOS stands for Earth Observing System) snow depth biases and sea ice density uncertainties can possibly account for the differences between Envisat and ICESat SIT. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wang, Jinfei Min, Chao Ricker, Robert Shi, Qian Han, Bo Hendricks, Stefan Wu, Renhao Yang, Qinghua |
author_facet |
Wang, Jinfei Min, Chao Ricker, Robert Shi, Qian Han, Bo Hendricks, Stefan Wu, Renhao Yang, Qinghua |
author_sort |
Wang, Jinfei |
title |
A comparison between Envisat and ICESat sea ice thickness in the Southern Ocean |
title_short |
A comparison between Envisat and ICESat sea ice thickness in the Southern Ocean |
title_full |
A comparison between Envisat and ICESat sea ice thickness in the Southern Ocean |
title_fullStr |
A comparison between Envisat and ICESat sea ice thickness in the Southern Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
A comparison between Envisat and ICESat sea ice thickness in the Southern Ocean |
title_sort |
comparison between envisat and icesat sea ice thickness in the southern ocean |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4473-2022 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00063184 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00062294/tc-16-4473-2022.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/4473/2022/tc-16-4473-2022.pdf |
geographic |
Antarctic Southern Ocean The Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Southern Ocean The Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Southern Ocean The Cryosphere Weddell Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Southern Ocean The Cryosphere Weddell Sea |
op_relation |
The Cryosphere -- ˜Theœ Cryosphere -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2393169 -- http://www.the-cryosphere.net/ -- 1994-0424 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4473-2022 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00063184 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00062294/tc-16-4473-2022.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/4473/2022/tc-16-4473-2022.pdf |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4473-2022 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
4473 |
op_container_end_page |
4490 |
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1766251241804922880 |