Sea ice concentration derived from temperature brightness data of the Microwave Radiation Imager sensors onboard the Chinese FengYun-3 satellites in the polar regions from 2010 to 2019

• Main Authors: Chen, Ying, Pang, Xiaoping, Lei, Ruibo, Zhao, X
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2022
• Subjects: Antarctic; Arctic; Binary Object; Binary Object (File Size); FengYun-3; File content; Microwave Radiation Imager; sea ice concentration; The Antarctic; Antarc*; National Snow and Ice Data Center; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.945188; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.945188

This sea ice concentration dataset (SIC) was derived from the re-calibrated brightness temperature of the Microwave Radiation Imager (MWRI) sensors. The MWRI sensors are onboard the Chinese second generation of sun-synchronous meteorological satellites, i.e., FY-3A, FY-3B, FY-3C, and FY-3D, which were launched in 2008. The advanced Arctic Radiation and Turbulence Interaction Study Sea Ice (ASI) algorithm involving dynamic tie points was adopted to retrieve this SIC dataset. The MWRI-ASI SIC dataset was projected onto the polar stereographic grid true at 70 degrees at a 12.5-km spatial resolution in the Arctic and Antarctic. The time coverage of this dataset is from 12 November 2010 to 31 December 2019 with a temporary loss of 23 days in the Arctic and 82 days in the Antarctic. The MWRI-ASI SIC dataset is achieved in TIFF format. The data values have specific meanings: '0-100' for the percentage of SIC, '-1' for land, '-2' for the Pole Hole, and 'NoData' for missing data. The accuracy of this dataset was assessed by ship-based observational SIC. A total of 8887 and 3882 samples of SIC observations were used in the Arctic and Antarctic, respectively. The differences between this MWRI SIC and ship-based SIC are concentrated from -20% to 20% with the overall mean absolute deviation of 16.1% in the Arctic and 17.1% in the Antarctic, respectively. The treads of sea ice extent obtained from this MWRI-ASI SIC for both Arctic and Antarctic are consistent with those from the Sea Ice Index provided by the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility Norwegian Meteorological Institute (OSI-SAF) and the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). This dataset can be considered as an important backup of sea ice concentration or extent passive microwave products for multidisciplinary studies in the polar regions and beyond.