Combining Amsr-e and 1uikscat to Retrieve Sea Ice Types and Concentrations in the Arctic

A new sea ice algorithm, Environment Canada’s Ice Concentration Extractor (ECICE), combines several different satellite sensors to extract ice types and concentrations. Results are presented for the Arctic region during the ice growth season of 2007/08. Three ice types are specified: young, first year and multi year. The algorithm was applied using AMSR-E (36.5 GHz channel) combined with backscatter from QuikSCAT scatterometer. Total ice concentration is in agreement with estimates from other algorithms under winter ice conditions. The two-sensor combination can also identify multi year ice better than single sensor algorithms. Case studies are presented as well as the spatial distribution of ice types over the Arctic Ocean. Young ice exists for short periods (average of few days) except for polynyas where it persists for more than 25 days. First year ice grows rapidly to cover most of the Arctic region with fastest rate of growth observed during the first half of November. Multi year ice continued to be pushed against the Queen Elizabeth Islands and be drifted southward during fall/winter seasons along the coast of Greenland and Ellesmere Island. Variation of multi-year ice concentration distributions with time (on weekly basis) is also shown. Most of the ice in the channels within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago is locally-grown first year, but multi-year ice is imported from the central Arctic Ocean. Anomalous conditions of melt-refreeze, which are common during seasonal transition periods, cause errors in estimating first year ice and multi year ice concentrations.