SAC-D/Aquarius MWR sea ice concentration: first results and validation
Abstract
The National Space Agency of Argentina (CONAE) developed the SAC-D/Aquarius science mission (launched in June 2011), together with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). One of the sensors on board the SAC-D is a MWR (Micro Wave Radiometer). This instrument is a three channel push broom microwave radiometer with 8 antenna beams per channel and two different incident angles (52° and 58°), that provides a measurement swath of approximately 380 Km. These channels provide 36.5 GHz dual horizontal and vertical polarized and 23.8 GHz horizontal polarized radiance measurements in an overlapping swath with the L-band Aquarius radiometer/scatterometer. Geophysical variables over marine surface, such as, columnar water vapor, wind speed, sea ice concentration, and rain rate are generated with the data comming from MWR. It is well recognized that sea ice is the most significant characteristic of the polar ocean environment and influences the Earth's global climate. Some approaches such as the Bootstrap and the NASA Team algorithms have been designed to estimate sea ice concentration and type using microwave emissions. These algorithms rely primarily on the factor that polarization and spectrum are different for sea ice and open ocean. CONAE developed an algorithm with the collaboration of CFRSL (Central Florida Remote Sensing Laboratory) and SHN (Argentine Naval Hydrographic Service), for the sea ice concentration using data coming from MWR radiometer. This algorithm is based on differences between brightness temperatures corresponding to vertical and horizontal polarization of 36.5 GHz band and the gradient corresponding to values of 36.5 and 23.8 GHZ in horizontal polarization. A validation process was implemented with the collaboration of SHN researchers, using the sea ice concentration obtained from National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) for comparisons. In this work we present the first results of Sea Ice Concentration obtained using the CONAE algorithm for both, north and south poles. In addition, we show the preliminary validation analysis of those estimations.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFM.C21C0611B
- Keywords:
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- 0700 CRYOSPHERE;
- 0758 CRYOSPHERE / Remote sensing