Dynamics of the Terra Nova Bay Polynya: The potential of multi-sensor satellite observations

Hollands, Thomas; Dierking, Wolfgang

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2016.10.003

Cited by 38 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…According to Barber and Massom (2007), the Ross Sea Polynya (RSP) is the largest in the Antarctic, with a winter area of around 20,000 km 2 . Two smaller polynyas are located in the western part of the Ross Sea: the Terra Nova Bay Polynya (TNBP), with a mean area of 1,300 km 2 and maxima up to 5,000 km 2 , and the McMurdo Sound Polynya (MSP), with an area about two thirds of the TNBP (Hollands and Dierking 2016). The TNBP, which is oriented east-west, is bounded by the Drygalski Ice Tongue in the south and by the Campbell Ice Tongue in the north.…”

Section: Polynyasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polar Environments and Global Change

Barry

Hall-McKim

2018

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Section: Polynyasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polar Environments and Global Change

Barry

Hall-McKim

2018

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“…The separation scales and lengths of Langmuir cells generally increase with wind speed and distance from the coast [27,28], but there are also clear deviations from this relationship. In fact, the Langmuir circulation does not only depend on wind stress but also on the Stokes drift, the average velocity of a fluid parcel, and of surface waves [29].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

SAR Pancake Ice Thickness Retrieval in the Terra Nova Bay (Antarctica) during the PIPERS Expedition in Winter 2017

Aulicino

Wadhams

Parmiggiani³

2019

Remote Sensing

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Pancake and frazil ice represent an important component of the Arctic and Antarctic cryosphere, especially in marginal ice zones. The retrieval of their thickness by remote sensing is, in general, a difficult task. A processing system was developed and refined by the present authors in the framework of the EU SPICES project; it is meant for routinely deriving ice thickness in frazil-pancake regions using the spectral changes in wave spectra from imagery provided by space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems. This methodology was successfully tested in the Beaufort Sea through comparison with ground truth collected during the cruise of the “Sikuliaq” in the fall of 2015. In the present study, this technique has been adapted and applied to Antarctic frazil/pancake icefields using COSMO-SkyMed satellite images. Our retrievals were analyzed and validated through a comparison with co-located in situ observations collected during the 2017 PIPERS cruise in Terra Nova Bay polynya. A broad agreement was found between measured thicknesses and those retrieved from the SAR analysis. Results and statistics presented and discussed in detail in this study represent a step towards the autonomous measurement of pancake icefields in remote areas such as Antarctic coastal polynyas and marginal ice zones.

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“…In the polar regions, the exchange of heat, energy, mass, and momentum between the ocean and the atmosphere is strongly affected by the presence and the evolution of the sea ice cover [1] which hinders sensible heat fluxes and forms an effective barrier to ocean evaporation [2][3][4][5]. Polynyas are recurring and quasi-permanent highly dynamic areas of open water and recently formed ice which interrupt the continuous ice cover [6]. They are classified as latent heat (coastal) and sensible heat polynyas according to their formation mechanisms [7,8] and represent sites of very intensive ocean-atmosphere exchanges [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, remote sensing is essential to monitor their recurrence and evolution, and to complement in situ observations over larger areas [21,22]. Passive microwave radiometers (PMW) are independent from light and cloud coverage and represent the preferred satellite sensors for monitoring polynyas [6]. Observations are available since the 70s through the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) carried onboard the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) platforms, and later through the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSM/IS), and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometers AMSR-E and AMSR-2 on the NASA AQUA and the Japanese GCOM-W1 satellites, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, they are mainly used to observe polynyas in local areas and short periods, and to validate algorithms derived for PMW [28,29] and TIR [30] products. Correctly, Hollands and Dierking [6] argued that the concurrent use of complementary sensors (optical, thermal, radar) represents the best approach to improve future satellite observation strategies over polynyas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A New Approach for Monitoring the Terra Nova Bay Polynya through MODIS Ice Surface Temperature Imagery and Its Validation during 2010 and 2011 Winter Seasons

et al. 2018

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Polynyas are dynamic stretches of open water surrounded by ice. They typically occur in remote regions of the Arctic and Antarctic, thus remote sensing is essential for monitoring their dynamics. On regional scales, daily passive microwave radiometers provide useful information about their extent because of their independence from cloud coverage and daylight; nonetheless, their coarse resolution often does not allow an accurate discrimination between sea ice and open water. Despite its sensitivity to the presence of clouds, thermal infrared (TIR) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) provides higher-resolution information (typically 1 km) at large swath widths, several times per day, proving to be useful for the retrieval of the size of polynyas. In this study, we deal with Aqua satellite MODIS observations of a frequently occurring coastal polynya in the Terra Nova Bay (TNB), Ross Sea (Antarctica). The potential of a new methodology for estimating the variability of this polynya through MODIS TIR during the 2010 and 2011 freezing season (April to October) is presented and discussed. The polynya is observed in more than 1600 radiance scenes, after a preliminary filter evaluates and discards cloudy and fog-contaminated scenes. This reduces the useful MODIS swaths to about 50% of the available acquisitions, but a revisit time of less than 24 h is kept for about 90% of the study period. As expected, results show a high interannual variability with an opening/closing fluctuation clearly depending on the regime of the katabatic winds recorded by the automatic weather stations Rita and Eneide along the TNB coast. Retrievals are also validated through a comparison with a set of 196 co-located high-resolution ENVISAT ASAR images. Although our estimations slightly underestimate the ASAR derived extents, a good agreement is found, the linear correlation reaching 0.75 and the average relative error being about 6%. Finally, a sensitivity test on the applied thermal thresholds supports the effectiveness of our setting.

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Dynamics of the Terra Nova Bay Polynya: The potential of multi-sensor satellite observations

Cited by 38 publications

References 46 publications

Polar Environments and Global Change

Polar Environments and Global Change

SAR Pancake Ice Thickness Retrieval in the Terra Nova Bay (Antarctica) during the PIPERS Expedition in Winter 2017

A New Approach for Monitoring the Terra Nova Bay Polynya through MODIS Ice Surface Temperature Imagery and Its Validation during 2010 and 2011 Winter Seasons

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