The Operation IceBridge Sea Ice Freeboard, Snow Septh and Thickness Product: An In-Depth Look at Past, Current and Future Versions

Abstract:

The NASA Operation IceBridge Project Science Office has recently released an updated version of the sea ice freeboard, snow depth and thickness product (IDCSI4). This product is generated through the combination of multiple IceBridge instrument data, primarily the ATM laser altimeter, DMS georeferenced imagery and the CReSIS snow radar, and is available on a campaign-specific basis as all upstream data sets become available. Version 1 data (IDCSI2) was the initial data production; we have subsequently received community feedback that has now been incorporated, allowing us to provide an improved data product. All data now available to the public at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) have been homogeneously reprocessed using the new IDCSI4 algorithm. This algorithm contains significant upgrades that improve the quality and consistency of the dataset, including updated atmospheric and oceanic tidal models and replacement of the geoid with a more representative mean sea surface height product. Known errors with the IDCSI2 algorithm, identified by the Project Science Office as well as feedback from the scientific community, have been incorporated into the new algorithm as well. We will describe in detail the various steps of the IDCSI4 algorithm, show the improvements made over the IDCSI2 dataset and their beneficial impact and discuss future upgrades planned for the next version.