Systematic Remote Sensing of Arctic Sea Ice with Global Fiducials Imagery

Unique, free, high-resolution, Arctic sea ice imagery is available from the U.S. Geological Surveys Global Fiducials Library. Since 1997, remotely-sensed high-resolution United States National Imagery Systems (USNIS) imagery has been collected to monitor Arctic sea ice behavior. Initial imagery documented the Surface Heat and Energy Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA) Experiment. In this 1997-1998 experiment which spanned 404 days, the icebreaker Des Groseilliers was frozen into the Beaufort Sea, where it drifted >2,000 km. More than 100, 1.3-meter resolution USNIS images were acquired of the ship and adjacent ice. Publicly released sea ice imagery products from SHEBA and other sea ice missions are available on the USGS Global Fiducials Library (GFL) and the GFL Image Gallery websites. The URLs for the websites are: https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/nli/global-fiducials-library and https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/gfl/index.php?PTAGNAME=ArcticBuoys&img:2573:208. From 1999 to 2014, six Arctic Basin static sites were imaged for periods of up to 15 years to study: sea ice dynamics, distribution, age, melt history, and annual variability. The sites are located in: the Beaufort Sea; offshore of Barrow, Alaska; the Chukchi Sea; the Canada Basin; north of Fram Strait; and the East Siberian Sea. Currently, 884 static site images are available from the GFL. In 2009, USGS began to track and capture imagery of the same ice over time as it drifted across the Arctic Basin, using a methodology that tracked telemetering buoys at various locations. Between 2009 and 2014, ~50 buoys were monitored for periods ranging from <2 months to >17 months. During observation, buoys and associated sea ice drifted hundreds to thousands of kilometers. 1,734 images collected while monitoring 38 drifting buoys are available from the GFL. Lastly, in 2013 and 2014, to track and understand the interplay among ice, atmosphere, and ocean, as they contribute to the rapid decline in summer ice extent, the USGS supported the Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissance Surveys (SIZRS) Program. Beaufort and Chukchi Seas sites, located every degree of latitude between 70o N and 80o N along a north-south transect were imaged. More than 300 SIZRS images are available from the GFL. Case studies of each category are presented.