Abstracts
SEARCH Open Science Meeting
October 27, 2003
Seattle, Washington, USA
Arctic Changes Observed with Scatterometer Products
Son V. Nghiem1, Donald K. Perovich2, David G. Barber3
1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 300-235, Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA, Phone 818-354-2982, Fax 818-393-3077, Son.V.Nghiem@jpl.nasa.gov
2Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Army, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover, MH, 03755, USA, Phone 603-646-4255, Fax 603-646-4644, perovich@crrel.usace.army.mil
3Center for Earth Observation Science, University of Manitoba, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2N2, Canada, Phone 204-474-6981, Fax 204-474-7699, dbarber@ms.umanitoba.ca
Recent observations indicate that Arctic regions are undergoing significant changes. In 2002, sea ice extent shows a record minimum, and surface-melt area over the Greenland ice sheet set a record maximum [Sturm et al., Meltdown in the North, Sci. Amer., 2003; Perovich et al., Assessing, understanding, and conveying the state of the Arctic sea ice cover, AGU Fall Meeting, 2003]. To observe polar changes, we develop new and/or improved geophysical products from satellite scatterometer data with a frequent coverage (two times per day) over large scales.
Although new compared to other satellite datasets, scatterometer data have been collected by SeaWinds on the QuikSCAT Satellite into the fifth year since its launch in 1999. Together with the follow-on SeaWinds on the Midori-II Satellite launched last December, a decade of scatterometer data is expected. We have developed and implemented the concept of “satellite stations”, at which time-series satellite data are collected around special locations such as field experiment sites, weather network stations, data buoys, and instrumented sites. Combined with in-situ measurements at these stations, satellite data can be appropriately interpreted to derive geophysical products, and conversely the satellite time-series extend the observations over time at the stations. Geophysical products that we derive from scatterometer data include sea ice extent over all seasons, sea ice types including seasonal and perennial ice extent, polynya area, melt onset and freeze-up dates, numbers of melting and freezing days, melting and refreezing zones over ice, duration of melting and freezing seasons, and wind field up to the vicinity of the sea ice edge.
For the first time, our observations at Chuckchi Satellite Station (Perovich’s field site) and C-ICE Satellite Station (Barber’s field site) consistently reveal the longest melting season in 2002 followed by the shortest freezing season since the beginning of the QuikSCAT dataset. Large-scale geophysical products obtained from QuikSCAT data extend the observation over the entire Arctic basin. These results will help to understand the peculiar record of the cryospheric conditions in 2002. Such observations over long term are important to monitor changes in polar regions.
Abstract Categories: Changes in the Sea
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