Estimating Arctic sea ice thickness and volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data
Arctic sea ice is a major element of the Earth's climate system. It acts to regulate regional heat and freshwater budgets and subsequent atmospheric and oceanic circulation across the Arctic and at lower latitudes. Satellites have observed a decline in Arctic sea ice extent for all months since...
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ftucl:oai:eprints.ucl.ac.uk.OAI2:10040442 2023-12-24T10:13:00+01:00 Estimating Arctic sea ice thickness and volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data Tilling, RL Ridout, A Shepherd, A 2017-11-07 text https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040442/1/1-s2.0-S0273117717307901-main.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040442/ eng eng https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040442/1/1-s2.0-S0273117717307901-main.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040442/ open Advances in Space Research (2017) (In press). Cryosphere Sea ice Remote sensing Arctic Article 2017 ftucl 2023-11-27T13:07:38Z Arctic sea ice is a major element of the Earth's climate system. It acts to regulate regional heat and freshwater budgets and subsequent atmospheric and oceanic circulation across the Arctic and at lower latitudes. Satellites have observed a decline in Arctic sea ice extent for all months since 1979. However, to fully understand how changes in the Arctic sea ice cover impact on our global weather and climate, long-term and accurate observations of its thickness distribution are also required. Such observations were made possible with the launch of the European Space Agency's (ESA's) CryoSat-2 satellite in April 2010, which provides unparalleled coverage of the Arctic Ocean up to 88°N. Here we provide an end-to-end, comprehensive description of the data processing steps employed to estimate Northern Hemisphere sea ice thickness and subsequent volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data and complementary observations. This is a sea ice processor that has been under constant development at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) since the early 1990s. We show that there is no significant bias in our satellite sea ice thickness retrievals when compared with independent measurements. We also provide a detailed analysis of the uncertainties associated with our sea ice thickness and volume estimates by considering the independent sources of error in the retrieval. Each month, the main contributors to the uncertainty are snow depth and snow density, which suggests that a crucial next step in Arctic sea ice research is to develop improved estimates of snow loading. In this paper we apply our theory and methods solely to CryoSat-2 data in the Northern Hemisphere. However, they may act as a guide to developing a sea ice processing system for satellite radar altimeter data over the Southern Hemisphere, and from other Polar orbiting missions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice University College London: UCL Discovery Arctic Arctic Ocean |
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Open Polar |
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University College London: UCL Discovery |
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ftucl |
language |
English |
topic |
Cryosphere Sea ice Remote sensing Arctic |
spellingShingle |
Cryosphere Sea ice Remote sensing Arctic Tilling, RL Ridout, A Shepherd, A Estimating Arctic sea ice thickness and volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data |
topic_facet |
Cryosphere Sea ice Remote sensing Arctic |
description |
Arctic sea ice is a major element of the Earth's climate system. It acts to regulate regional heat and freshwater budgets and subsequent atmospheric and oceanic circulation across the Arctic and at lower latitudes. Satellites have observed a decline in Arctic sea ice extent for all months since 1979. However, to fully understand how changes in the Arctic sea ice cover impact on our global weather and climate, long-term and accurate observations of its thickness distribution are also required. Such observations were made possible with the launch of the European Space Agency's (ESA's) CryoSat-2 satellite in April 2010, which provides unparalleled coverage of the Arctic Ocean up to 88°N. Here we provide an end-to-end, comprehensive description of the data processing steps employed to estimate Northern Hemisphere sea ice thickness and subsequent volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data and complementary observations. This is a sea ice processor that has been under constant development at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) since the early 1990s. We show that there is no significant bias in our satellite sea ice thickness retrievals when compared with independent measurements. We also provide a detailed analysis of the uncertainties associated with our sea ice thickness and volume estimates by considering the independent sources of error in the retrieval. Each month, the main contributors to the uncertainty are snow depth and snow density, which suggests that a crucial next step in Arctic sea ice research is to develop improved estimates of snow loading. In this paper we apply our theory and methods solely to CryoSat-2 data in the Northern Hemisphere. However, they may act as a guide to developing a sea ice processing system for satellite radar altimeter data over the Southern Hemisphere, and from other Polar orbiting missions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tilling, RL Ridout, A Shepherd, A |
author_facet |
Tilling, RL Ridout, A Shepherd, A |
author_sort |
Tilling, RL |
title |
Estimating Arctic sea ice thickness and volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data |
title_short |
Estimating Arctic sea ice thickness and volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data |
title_full |
Estimating Arctic sea ice thickness and volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data |
title_fullStr |
Estimating Arctic sea ice thickness and volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data |
title_full_unstemmed |
Estimating Arctic sea ice thickness and volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data |
title_sort |
estimating arctic sea ice thickness and volume using cryosat-2 radar altimeter data |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040442/1/1-s2.0-S0273117717307901-main.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040442/ |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice |
op_source |
Advances in Space Research (2017) (In press). |
op_relation |
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040442/1/1-s2.0-S0273117717307901-main.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040442/ |
op_rights |
open |
_version_ |
1786178485809577984 |