HR: 1340h
AN: C23A-0927    [Abstracts]
TI: Sea Ice Characteristics from the West Antarctic ODEN Cruise Compared to Satellite Analyses
AU: * Ozsoy-Cicek, B
EM: burcu@drcicek.com
AF: University Of Texas at San Antonio, Laboratory for Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, Dept of Earth & Environmental Science, San Antonio, TX 78249, United States
AU: Xie, H
EM: Hongjie.Xie@utsa.edu
AF: University Of Texas at San Antonio, Laboratory for Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, Dept of Earth & Environmental Science, San Antonio, TX 78249, United States
AU: Ackley, S
EM: Stephen.Ackley@utsa.edu
AF: University Of Texas at San Antonio, Laboratory for Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, Dept of Earth & Environmental Science, San Antonio, TX 78249, United States
AB: In this study, AMSR-E's (The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System) geophysical product for ice concentration and ice edge location was compared to ice observations made aboard ship in the Antarctic pack ice during ODEN expedition (Swedish icebreaker) sponsored by United States National Science Foundation (NSF) as of the first collaborative activities of the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007 - 2008. Ice observations consist of ASPECT (Antarctic Sea Ice Process and Climate) protocol that provides a standardized and quantifiable method for observing sea ice that is now accepted as the international standard. Estimates of ice concentration, ice type with its thickness, floe size, and snow type with it is thicknesses are conducted along with meteorological observations. Observations involved making half an hour observations from the ship's bridge within a radius of approximately 1 km of the ship. Our observations made along 67° 53 S latitude and 102° 97 W longitude and along 73° 52 S latitude and 178° 54 E longitude in December 2006. Different ice types and temperature conditions were encountered during the observations. Sea ice concentration varied between 10% and 90%. During the expedition the minimum and maximum ice thickness varied between 10 cm and 3m. The results from the observations analyzed using a GIS platform and provided detailed data for comparison with satellite products. AMSR-E microwave remote sensing data contains brightness temperatures (TBs) at 6.9 GHz, 10.7 GHz, 18.7 GHz, 23.8 GHz, 36.5 GHz, and 89.0 GHz. and uses various algorithms to estimate the snow depth, sea ice concentration, and sea ice temperature. The study region for the comparison includes the West Antarctic sea ice zone which is particularly interesting since the sea ice of the area is highly sensitive to global climate change.
DE: 4540 Ice mechanics and air/sea/ice exchange processes (0700, 0750, 0752, 0754)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting