Multisensor data and thermodynamic sea-ice model based sea-ice thickness chart with application to the Kara Sea, Arctic Russia

Abstract

We introduce a method to construct an ice thickness chart using two satellite datasets and a one-dimensional high-resolution thermodynamic snow and sea-ice model (HIGHTSI). Thin-ice thickness up to 40cm is retrieved using MODIS ice surface temperature data. For thicker ice, thickness is retrieved from a combination of SAR image and background level ice thickness chart Hi provided by HIGHTSI. Because Hi is inherently static, we utilize passive microwave data based sea-ice concentration charts to introduce mesoscale ice dynamics into Hi. In order to create the thickness chart, the value of modified Hi is scaled by a factor which depends on the magnitude of backscattering coefficient σ0. The proposed method is effective in cold winter conditions. We calculated a series of ice thickness charts covering the Kara Sea, Arctic Russia, during winter 2008/09. The ice thickness charts were validated against Russian ice charts. Our method gave realistic results in the thickness range 30-120cm and was uncertain for the detection of thinner-ice areas. Due to the limitations in our reference dataset, more validation work is needed to establish the accuracy in more detail. Our thickness charts can be used for operational purposes and in climate studies.