Improving Multiyear Ice Concentration Estimates with Reanalysis Air Temperatures

Abstract:

Multiyear ice (MYI) characteristics can be retrieved from passive or active microwave remote sensing observations. One of the algorithms that combine both of observations to identify partial concentrations of ice types (including MYI) is the Environment Canada’s Ice Concentration Extractor (ECICE). However, cycles of warm/cold air temperature trigger wet-refreeze cycles of the snow cover on MYI ice surface. Under wet snow conditions, anomalous brightness temperature and backscatter, similar to those of first year ice (FYI) are observed. This leads to misidentification of MYI as being FYI, hence decreasing the estimated MYI concentration suddenly. The purpose of this study is to introduce a correction scheme to restore the MYI concentration under this condition. The correction is based on air temperature records. It utilizes the fact that the warm spell in autumn lasts for a short period of time (a few days). The correction is applied to MYI concentration results from ECICE using an input of combined QuikSCAT and AMSR-E data; acquired over the Arctic region in a series of autumn seasons from 2003 to 2008. The correction works well by replacing anomalous MYI concentrations with interpolated ones. For September of the six years, it introduces over 0.1×10⁶ km² MYI area except for 2005. Due to the regional effect of the warm air spells, the correction could be important in the operational applications where small and meso scale ice concentrations are crucial.