ARCUS | Arctic Research Consortium of the United States

6th Annual ARCUS Award for Arctic Research Excellence


Submitted by   Lars Kaleschke
Authors   Lars Kaleschke, G. Heygster, C. Lüpkes, A. Bochert, J. Hartmann, J. Haarpaintner, and T. Vihma
Category   Physical Science
Title   SSM/I Sea Ice Remote Sensing for Mesoscale Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction Analysis
Affiliation   Institute of Environmental Physics, Dept. of Physics and Electrical Engineering, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Abstract

Two algorithms have been used in a hybrid scheme in order to obtain sea ice concentration maps at 12 km resolution from Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) data. One algorithm is based on the 85 GHz polarization difference. The second algorithm is the NASA Team algorithm using the 19 and 37 GHz SSM/I channels. Using 85 GHz SSM/I data allows a significant resolution improvement compared to 19 GHz SSM/I data. This, however, requires to carefully consider the larger atmospheric opacity affecting SSM/I measurements at 85 GHz (weather influence) which can lead to incorrect sea ice concentration estimates - particularly over open water.