Abstract. Sea-ice thickness on a global scale is derived from different satellite sensors using independent retrieval methods. Due to the sensor and orbit characteristics, such satellite retrievals differ in spatial and temporal resolution as well as in the sensitivity to certain sea-ice types and thickness ranges. Satellite altimeters, such as CryoSat-2 (CS2), sense the height of the ice surface above the sea level, which can be converted into sea-ice thickness. Relative uncertainties associated with this method are large over thin ice regimes. Another retrieval method is based on the evaluation of surface brightness temperature (TB) in L-band microwave frequencies (1.4 GHz) with a thickness-dependent emission model, as measured by the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite. While the radiometer-based method looses sensitivity for thick sea ice (> 1 m), relative uncertainties over thin ice are significantly smaller than for the altimetry-based retrievals. In addition, the SMOS product provides global sea-ice coverage on a daily basis unlike the altimeter data. This study presents the first merged product of complementary weekly Arctic sea-ice thickness data records from the CS2 altimeter and SMOS radiometer. We use two merging approaches: a weighted mean (WM) and an optimal interpolation (OI) scheme. While the weighted mean leaves gaps between CS2 orbits, OI is used to produce weekly Arctic-wide sea-ice thickness fields. The benefit of the data merging is shown by a comparison with airborne electromagnetic (AEM) induction sounding measurements. When compared to airborne thickness data in the Barents Sea, the merged product has a root mean square deviation (RMSD) of about 0.7 m less than the CS2 product and therefore demonstrates the capability to enhance the CS2 product in thin ice regimes. However, in mixed first-year (FYI) and multiyear (MYI) ice regimes as in the Beaufort Sea, the CS2 retrieval shows the lowest bias.

Abstract. Following the launch of ESA's Soil Moisture andOcean Salinity (SMOS) mission, it has been shown that brightness temperatures at a low microwave frequency of 1.4 GHz (L-band) are sensitive to sea ice properties. In the first demonstration study, sea ice thickness up to 50 cm has been derived using a semi-empirical algorithm with constant tie-points. Here, we introduce a novel iterative retrieval algorithm that is based on a thermodynamic sea ice model and a three-layer radiative transfer model, which explicitly takes variations of ice temperature and ice salinity into account. In addition, ice thickness variations within the SMOS spatial resolution are considered through a statistical thickness distribution function derived from high-resolution ice thickness measurements from NASA's Operation IceBridge campaign. This new algorithm has been used for the continuous operational production of a SMOS-based sea ice thickness data set from 2010 on. The data set is compared to and validated with estimates from assimilation systems, remote sensing data, and airborne electromagnetic sounding data. The comparisons show that the new retrieval algorithm has a considerably better agreement with the validation data and delivers a more realistic Arctic-wide ice thickness distribution than the algorithm used in the previous study (Kaleschke et al., 2012).

[1] The Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS) on board the European Space Agency's (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission for the first time measures globally Earth's radiation at a frequency of 1.4 GHz (L-band). It had been hypothesized that L-band radiometry can be used to measure the sea ice thickness due to the large penetration depth in the sea ice medium. We demonstrate the potential of SMOS to derive the thickness of thin sea ice for the Arctic freeze-up period using a novel retrieval algorithm based on Level 1C brightness temperatures. The SMOS ice thickness product is compared with an ice growth model and independent sea ice thickness estimates from MODIS thermal infrared imagery. The ice thickness derived from SMOS is highly consistent with the temporal development of the growth simulation and agrees with the ice thickness from MODIS images with 10 cm standard deviation. The results confirm that SMOS can be used to retrieve sea ice thickness up to half a meter under ideal cold conditions with surface air temperatures below À10°C and highconcentration sea ice coverage. Citation: Kaleschke, L., X. Tian-Kunze, N. Maaß, M. Mäkynen, and M. Drusch (2012), Sea ice thickness retrieval from SMOS brightness temperatures during the Arctic freeze-up period, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L05501,

Abstract. Ozone Depletion Events (ODE) during polar springtime are a well known phenomenon in the Arctic and Antarctic boundary layer. They are caused by the catalytic destruction of ozone by halogens producing reactive halogen oxides like bromine monoxide (BrO). The key halogen bromine can be rapidly transferred into the gas phase in an autocatalytic process -the so called "Bromine Explosion". However, the exact mechanism, which leads to an initial bromine release as well as the influence of transport and chemical processes on BrO, is still not clearly understood.In this study, BrO measurements from the satellite instrument GOME-2 are used together with model calculations with the dispersion model FLEXPART to study an arctic BrO event in March 2007, which could be tracked over several days and a large area. Full BrO activation was observed within one day east of Siberia with subsequent transport to Hudson Bay. The event was linked to a cyclone with very high surface wind speeds, which could have been involved in the production and lifting of aerosols or blowing snow. Considering the short life time of BrO, transported aerosols or snow can also provide the surface for BrO recycling within the plume for several days. The evolution of the BrO plume could be reproduced by FLEXPART simulations of a passive tracer indicating that the activated air mass was transported all the way from Siberia to Hudson Bay. To localise the most probable transport height, model runs initialised in different heights have been performed showing similar transport patterns throughout the troposphere but best agreement with the measurements between the surface and 3 km. The influence of changes in tropopause height on measured BrO values has Correspondence to: M. Begoin (begoin@iup.physik.uni-bremen.de) been considered, but cannot completely explain the observed high BrO values. Backward trajectories from the area of BrO initialisation show upward lifting from the surface up to 3 km and no indication for intrusion of stratospheric air. These observations are consistent with a scenario in which bromine in the air mass was activated on the surface within the cyclone, lifted upwards and transported over several thousand kilometres to Hudson Bay.

[1] Although it has recently been established that iodine plays an important role in the atmospheric chemistry of coastal Antarctica, where it occurs at levels which cause significant ozone (O 3 ) depletion and changes in the atmospheric oxidising capacity, iodine oxides have not previously been observed conclusively in the Arctic boundary layer (BL). This paper describes differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) observations of iodine monoxide (IO), along with gas chromatographic measurements of iodocarbons, in the sub-Arctic environment at Kuujjuarapik, Hudson Bay, Canada. Episodes of elevated levels of IO (up to 3.4 ± 1.2 ppt) accompanied by a variety of iodocarbons were observed. Air mass back trajectories show that the observed iodine compounds originate from open water polynyas that form in the sea ice on Hudson Bay. A combination of long-path DOAS and multiaxis DOAS observations suggested that the IO is limited to about 100 m in height. The observations are interpreted using a one-dimensional model, which indicates that the iodocarbon sources from these exposed waters can account for the observed concentrations of IO. These levels of IO deplete O 3 at rates comparable to bromine oxide (BrO) and, more importantly, strongly enhance the effect of bromine-catalyzed O 3 depletion in the Arctic BL, an effect which has not been quantitatively considered hitherto. However, the measurements and modeling results indicate that the effects of iodine chemistry are on a much more localized scale than bromine chemistry in the Arctic environment.