Ice Thickness, Snow Depth, and Surface Temperature in the Chukchi Sea Ice Edge from a Vessel-mounted Sea Ice Measurement System
Blake Weissling, University of Texas at San Antonio, Geological Sciences, San Antonio, TX, United States and Stephen F Ackley, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States
Abstract:
A new Sea Ice Measurement System was constructed combining an Electromagnetic Induction Meter (Geonics EM-31), a KU-CRESIS Snow Radar, a Wengler Lidar Altimeter and a FLIR Infrared Camera. These were in-line mounted on a frame that was suspended over the side of the Sikuliaq during the ONR SeaState cruise to the Chukchi Sea ice edge in Oct 2015. The EMI measured total snow and ice thickness when corrected for height above the surface by the Lidar Altimeter. Ice Thickness was derived by subtracting radar snow depth from EMI total snow and ice thickness. A Riegl Lidar mounted separately on an upper deck provided a surface elevation swath containing the sea ice measurement system’s line profile. These sea ice parameters, over 10km to 20km track lengths at 5m horizontal resolution, provide ground truth validation for airborne measurements which use only lidar surface elevation and radar snow depth to derive sea ice thickness. Algorithms to relate ice thickness only to surface elevation will be tested for possible application to future IceSAT-2 satellite data for the Arctic autumn period.
