Surface Properties Linked to Retrieval Uncertainty of Satellite Sea-Ice Thickness with Upward-Looking Sonar Measurements
One of the key sources of uncertainties in sea ice freeboard and thickness estimates derived from satellite radar altimetry results from changes in sea ice surface properties. In this study, we analyse this effect, comparing upward-looking sonar (ULS) measurements in the Beaufort Sea over the period...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/18/3094 |
| _version_ | 1797553054430527488 |
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| author | Kirill Khvorostovsky Stefan Hendricks Eero Rinne |
| author_facet | Kirill Khvorostovsky Stefan Hendricks Eero Rinne |
| author_sort | Kirill Khvorostovsky |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | One of the key sources of uncertainties in sea ice freeboard and thickness estimates derived from satellite radar altimetry results from changes in sea ice surface properties. In this study, we analyse this effect, comparing upward-looking sonar (ULS) measurements in the Beaufort Sea over the period 2003–2018 to sea ice draft derived from Envisat and Cryosat-2 data. We show that the sea ice draft growth underestimation observed for the most of winter seasons depends on the surface properties preconditioned by the melt intensity during the preceding summer. The comparison of sea ice draft time series in the Cryosat-2 era indicates that applying 50% retracker thresholds, used to produce the European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative (CCI) product, provide better agreement between satellite retrievals and ULS data than the 80% threshold that is closer to the expected physical waveform interpretation. Our results, therefore, indicate compensating error contributions in the full end-to-end sea-ice thickness processing chain, which prevents the quantification of individual factors with sea-ice thickness/draft validation data alone. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:09:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ad2e48f56f3f43ad988f358b6fbebcf9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:09:56Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-ad2e48f56f3f43ad988f358b6fbebcf92023-11-20T14:36:13ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922020-09-011218309410.3390/rs12183094Surface Properties Linked to Retrieval Uncertainty of Satellite Sea-Ice Thickness with Upward-Looking Sonar MeasurementsKirill Khvorostovsky0Stefan Hendricks1Eero Rinne2Satellite Oceanography Laboratory, Russian State Hydrometeorological University, 195196 Saint Petersburg, RussiaHelmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Alfred Wegener Institute, 27570 Bremerhaven, GermanyFinnish Meteorological Institute, Marine research, FI-00100 Helsinki, FinlandOne of the key sources of uncertainties in sea ice freeboard and thickness estimates derived from satellite radar altimetry results from changes in sea ice surface properties. In this study, we analyse this effect, comparing upward-looking sonar (ULS) measurements in the Beaufort Sea over the period 2003–2018 to sea ice draft derived from Envisat and Cryosat-2 data. We show that the sea ice draft growth underestimation observed for the most of winter seasons depends on the surface properties preconditioned by the melt intensity during the preceding summer. The comparison of sea ice draft time series in the Cryosat-2 era indicates that applying 50% retracker thresholds, used to produce the European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative (CCI) product, provide better agreement between satellite retrievals and ULS data than the 80% threshold that is closer to the expected physical waveform interpretation. Our results, therefore, indicate compensating error contributions in the full end-to-end sea-ice thickness processing chain, which prevents the quantification of individual factors with sea-ice thickness/draft validation data alone.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/18/3094sea ice thicknessradar altimetryvalidationsurface properties |
| spellingShingle | Kirill Khvorostovsky Stefan Hendricks Eero Rinne Surface Properties Linked to Retrieval Uncertainty of Satellite Sea-Ice Thickness with Upward-Looking Sonar Measurements Remote Sensing sea ice thickness radar altimetry validation surface properties |
| title | Surface Properties Linked to Retrieval Uncertainty of Satellite Sea-Ice Thickness with Upward-Looking Sonar Measurements |
| title_full | Surface Properties Linked to Retrieval Uncertainty of Satellite Sea-Ice Thickness with Upward-Looking Sonar Measurements |
| title_fullStr | Surface Properties Linked to Retrieval Uncertainty of Satellite Sea-Ice Thickness with Upward-Looking Sonar Measurements |
| title_full_unstemmed | Surface Properties Linked to Retrieval Uncertainty of Satellite Sea-Ice Thickness with Upward-Looking Sonar Measurements |
| title_short | Surface Properties Linked to Retrieval Uncertainty of Satellite Sea-Ice Thickness with Upward-Looking Sonar Measurements |
| title_sort | surface properties linked to retrieval uncertainty of satellite sea ice thickness with upward looking sonar measurements |
| topic | sea ice thickness radar altimetry validation surface properties |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/18/3094 |
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