Aerial observations of sea ice and melt ponds near the North Pole during CHINARE2010

LI Lanyu; KE Changqing; XIE Hongjie; LEI Ruibo; TAO Anqi

doi:10.1007/s13131-017-0994-2

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Article Navigation > Acta Oceanologica Sinica > 2017 > 36(1): 64-72

LI Lanyu, KE Changqing, XIE Hongjie, LEI Ruibo, TAO Anqi. Aerial observations of sea ice and melt ponds near the North Pole during CHINARE2010[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2017, 36(1): 64-72. doi: 10.1007/s13131-017-0994-2

Citation:

LI Lanyu, KE Changqing, XIE Hongjie, LEI Ruibo, TAO Anqi. Aerial observations of sea ice and melt ponds near the North Pole during CHINARE2010[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2017, 36(1): 64-72. doi: 10.1007/s13131-017-0994-2

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Aerial observations of sea ice and melt ponds near the North Pole during CHINARE2010

doi: 10.1007/s13131-017-0994-2

1.
Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
2.
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas 78249, USA
3.
Polar Research Institute of China, State Oceanic Administration, Shanghai 200136, China

Received Date: 2015-11-07
Rev Recd Date: 2016-01-28

Abstract

Abstract

An aerial photography has been used to provide validation data on sea ice near the North Pole where most polar orbiting satellites cannot cover. This kind of data can also be used as a supplement for missing data and for reducing the uncertainty of data interpolation. The aerial photos are analyzed near the North Pole collected during the Chinese national arctic research expedition in the summer of 2010 (CHINARE2010). The result shows that the average fraction of open water increases from the ice camp at approximately 87°N to the North Pole, resulting in the decrease in the sea ice. The average sea ice concentration is only 62.0% for the two flights (16 and 19 August 2010). The average albedo (0.42) estimated from the area ratios among snow-covered ice, melt pond and water is slightly lower than the 0.49 of HOTRAX 2005. The data on 19 August 2010 shows that the albedo decreases from the ice camp at approximately 87°N to the North Pole, primarily due to the decrease in the fraction of snow-covered ice and the increase in fractions of melt-pond and open-water. The ice concentration from the aerial photos and AMSR-E (The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System) images at 87.0°-87.5°N exhibits similar spatial patterns, although the AMSR-E concentration is approximately 18.0% (on average) higher than aerial photos. This can be attributed to the 6.25 km resolution of AMSR-E, which cannot separate melt ponds/submerged ice from ice and cannot detect the small leads between floes. Thus, the aerial photos would play an important role in providing high-resolution independent estimates of the ice concentration and the fraction of melt pond cover to validate and/or supplement space-borne remote sensing products near the North Pole.
- sea ice,
- melt pond,
- albedo,
- concentration,
- aerial observation,
- North Pole

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References(41)

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