Sea ice roughness overlooked as a key source of uncertainty in CryoSat-2 ice freeboard retrievals
ESA’s CryoSat-2 has transformed the way we monitor Arctic sea ice, providing routine measurements of the ice thickness with near basin-wide coverage. Past studies have shown that uncertainties in the sea ice thickness retrievals can be introduced at several steps of the processing chain, for instanc...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
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Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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2020
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1983/8f95ca0b-9f8a-4ddf-9025-406bc4a0ee5a https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/8f95ca0b-9f8a-4ddf-9025-406bc4a0ee5a https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015820 https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/239087759/2019JC015820.pdf |
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ftubristolcris:oai:research-information.bris.ac.uk:publications/8f95ca0b-9f8a-4ddf-9025-406bc4a0ee5a 2024-05-19T07:35:28+00:00 Sea ice roughness overlooked as a key source of uncertainty in CryoSat-2 ice freeboard retrievals Landy, Jack C Petty, Alek Tsamados, Michel Stroeve, Julienne C. 2020-05-19 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1983/8f95ca0b-9f8a-4ddf-9025-406bc4a0ee5a https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/8f95ca0b-9f8a-4ddf-9025-406bc4a0ee5a https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015820 https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/239087759/2019JC015820.pdf eng eng https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/8f95ca0b-9f8a-4ddf-9025-406bc4a0ee5a info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Landy , J C , Petty , A , Tsamados , M & Stroeve , J C 2020 , ' Sea ice roughness overlooked as a key source of uncertainty in CryoSat-2 ice freeboard retrievals ' , Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans , vol. 125 , no. 5 , e2019JC015820 . https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015820 Arctic sea ice CryoSat-2 Roughness Ice Freeboard Numerical modelling article 2020 ftubristolcris https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015820 2024-04-30T23:51:18Z ESA’s CryoSat-2 has transformed the way we monitor Arctic sea ice, providing routine measurements of the ice thickness with near basin-wide coverage. Past studies have shown that uncertainties in the sea ice thickness retrievals can be introduced at several steps of the processing chain, for instance in the estimation of snow depth, and snow and sea ice densities. Here, we apply a new physical model to CryoSat-2 which further reveals sea ice surface roughness as a key overlooked feature of the conventional retrieval process. High-resolution airborne observations demonstrate that snow and sea ice surface topography can be better characterized by a Lognormal distribution, which varies based on the ice age and surface roughness within a CryoSat-2 footprint, than a Gaussian distribution. Based on these observations, we perform a set of simulations for the CryoSat-2 echo waveform over ‘virtual’ sea ice surfaces with a range of roughness and radar backscattering configurations. By accounting for the variable roughness, our new Lognormal retracker produces sea ice freeboards which compare well with those derived from NASA’s Operation IceBridge airborne data and extends the capability of CryoSat-2 to profile the thinnest/smoothest sea ice and thickest/roughest ice. Our results indicate that the variable ice surface roughness contributes a systematic uncertainty in sea ice thickness of up to 20% over first-year ice and 30% over multi-year ice, representing one of the principal sources of pan-Arctic sea ice thickness uncertainty. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Sea ice University of Bristol: Bristol Research Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 125 5 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Bristol: Bristol Research |
op_collection_id |
ftubristolcris |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic sea ice CryoSat-2 Roughness Ice Freeboard Numerical modelling |
spellingShingle |
Arctic sea ice CryoSat-2 Roughness Ice Freeboard Numerical modelling Landy, Jack C Petty, Alek Tsamados, Michel Stroeve, Julienne C. Sea ice roughness overlooked as a key source of uncertainty in CryoSat-2 ice freeboard retrievals |
topic_facet |
Arctic sea ice CryoSat-2 Roughness Ice Freeboard Numerical modelling |
description |
ESA’s CryoSat-2 has transformed the way we monitor Arctic sea ice, providing routine measurements of the ice thickness with near basin-wide coverage. Past studies have shown that uncertainties in the sea ice thickness retrievals can be introduced at several steps of the processing chain, for instance in the estimation of snow depth, and snow and sea ice densities. Here, we apply a new physical model to CryoSat-2 which further reveals sea ice surface roughness as a key overlooked feature of the conventional retrieval process. High-resolution airborne observations demonstrate that snow and sea ice surface topography can be better characterized by a Lognormal distribution, which varies based on the ice age and surface roughness within a CryoSat-2 footprint, than a Gaussian distribution. Based on these observations, we perform a set of simulations for the CryoSat-2 echo waveform over ‘virtual’ sea ice surfaces with a range of roughness and radar backscattering configurations. By accounting for the variable roughness, our new Lognormal retracker produces sea ice freeboards which compare well with those derived from NASA’s Operation IceBridge airborne data and extends the capability of CryoSat-2 to profile the thinnest/smoothest sea ice and thickest/roughest ice. Our results indicate that the variable ice surface roughness contributes a systematic uncertainty in sea ice thickness of up to 20% over first-year ice and 30% over multi-year ice, representing one of the principal sources of pan-Arctic sea ice thickness uncertainty. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Landy, Jack C Petty, Alek Tsamados, Michel Stroeve, Julienne C. |
author_facet |
Landy, Jack C Petty, Alek Tsamados, Michel Stroeve, Julienne C. |
author_sort |
Landy, Jack C |
title |
Sea ice roughness overlooked as a key source of uncertainty in CryoSat-2 ice freeboard retrievals |
title_short |
Sea ice roughness overlooked as a key source of uncertainty in CryoSat-2 ice freeboard retrievals |
title_full |
Sea ice roughness overlooked as a key source of uncertainty in CryoSat-2 ice freeboard retrievals |
title_fullStr |
Sea ice roughness overlooked as a key source of uncertainty in CryoSat-2 ice freeboard retrievals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sea ice roughness overlooked as a key source of uncertainty in CryoSat-2 ice freeboard retrievals |
title_sort |
sea ice roughness overlooked as a key source of uncertainty in cryosat-2 ice freeboard retrievals |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1983/8f95ca0b-9f8a-4ddf-9025-406bc4a0ee5a https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/8f95ca0b-9f8a-4ddf-9025-406bc4a0ee5a https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015820 https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/239087759/2019JC015820.pdf |
genre |
Arctic Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Sea ice |
op_source |
Landy , J C , Petty , A , Tsamados , M & Stroeve , J C 2020 , ' Sea ice roughness overlooked as a key source of uncertainty in CryoSat-2 ice freeboard retrievals ' , Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans , vol. 125 , no. 5 , e2019JC015820 . https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015820 |
op_relation |
https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/8f95ca0b-9f8a-4ddf-9025-406bc4a0ee5a |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015820 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
container_volume |
125 |
container_issue |
5 |
_version_ |
1799474137341624320 |