Spurious Arctic sea ice identification by satellite microwave radiometers under extreme weather conditions

• Published in: Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa
• Main Authors: Zhivotovskaia‎, M.a., Zabolotskikh, E.v., Chapron, Bertrand
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Space Research Institute RAS 2019
• Subjects: geo; envir; Antarctic; Arctic; Antarc*; Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.21046/2070-7401-2019-16-6-209-220; https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00660/77187/78618.pdf; https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00660/77187/

The appearance of spurious sea ice concentration (SSIC) areas in sea ice concentration (SIC) products was studied under extreme weather conditions associated with the development of polar lows (PLs) and extratropical cyclones (ECs). The SIC products are based on measurements of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2). The database of the PLs and ECs in the Arctic was created for the period 2015–2018 and consists of optical and radar images of the ocean surface and sea ice maps of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (NMI) and the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI). Two satellite products were analyzed: daily average SIC, calculated with the ARTIST Sea Ice algorithm (ASI) and provided by the University of Bremen, and swath SIC of original time resolution calculated with the Bootstrap algorithm and provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). A comparison of the SIC fields with the NMI and AARI maps, as well as with optical and radar images, allowed us to identify SSIC areas for which the atmospheric water vapor content, cloud liquid water content, and sea surface wind speed were calculated from the AMSR2 data. The influence of these parameters on the appearance and characteristics of the SSIC areas was studied for both products. It was found that the reason of SSIC appearance in the product of the University of Bremen is mainly the atmospheric water, whereas in the JAXA product ― strong winds. The largest number of the SSIC cases was observed in the regions of the most frequent PLs and ECs. The areas of SSIC were estimated for both products, which proved to be almost the same in winter months but different in summer months.