Generating large-scale sea ice motion from Sentinel-1 and the RADARSAT Constellation Mission using the Environment and Climate Change Canada automated sea ice tracking system

Howell, Stephen E. L.; Brady, Michael S.; Komarov, Alexander S.

doi:10.5194/tc-16-1125-2022

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…We use a widely established methodology to estimate the sea ice area flux at the aforementioned gates (Agnew et al., 2008; Howell & Brady, 2019; Howell, Wohlleben, Dabboor, et al., 2013; Kwok, 2006; Kwok et al., 2010; Moore et al., 2021). For each SAR image pair, sea ice motion was estimated using the Environment and Climate Change Canada Automated Sea Ice Tracking System (ECCC‐ASITS; Howell, Brady, & Komarov, 2022) that is based on the Komarov and Barber (2014) feature tracking algorithm. The resulting sea ice motion estimates are interpolated using inverse distance weighting to each gate with a 30 km buffer on either side and then sampled at 5 km internals across each gate.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Komarov and Barber (2014) estimated the feature tracking algorithm used by the ECCC‐ASITS has an σ e of 0.43 km based on buoy comparison in the Beaufort Sea during the winter. Howell, Brady, and Komarov (2022) considered all Arctic buoys above 40°N without removing any outliers or imposing any quality flags on the buoys (e.g., Lindsay & Stern, 2003) and reported an σ e of 2.78 km for the winter (dry) months and an σ e of 3.43 km for the summer (wet) months. Solving Equation with this range of σ e values indicates that σ f over the sampling interval ranges from 12 to 92 km 2 at Nares Strait, 13–103 km 2 at M’Clure Strait, and 18–148 km 2 at the QEI.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additional supporting data used in this analysis include weekly total and multi-year ice (MYI) concentration from the Canadian Ice Service (CIS) digital ice charts (Tivy et al, 2011) available at https://iceweb1.cis.ec.gc. ca/Archive/page1.xhtml?lang=en, weekly large-scale RCM and Sentinel-1 sea ice motion data (Howell, Brady, & Komarov, 2022)…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additional supporting data used in this analysis include weekly total and multi‐year ice (MYI) concentration from the Canadian Ice Service (CIS) digital ice charts (Tivy et al., 2011) available at https://iceweb1.cis.ec.gc.ca/Archive/page1.xhtml?lang=en, weekly large‐scale RCM and Sentinel‐1 sea ice motion data (Howell, Brady, & Komarov, 2022) available at https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/22aa3b41-425f-4f67-9747-f097c00e3eb1 and monthly sea level pressure (SLP) and 10 m wind speed from ERA5 (Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), 2017) available at https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Comparison of Arctic Ocean Sea Ice Export Between Nares Strait and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

et al. 2023

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The recent decline in the Arctic Ocean sea ice extent during the summer months (e.g., Parkinson & DiGirolamo, 2021) is one of the most visible features of a warmer Arctic. However, identifying the processes responsible for the Arctic's sea ice decline is challenging because ice is very dynamic and does not always melt locally. While a considerable amount of sea ice does melt locally in the Arctic Ocean (Babb et al., 2022;Kwok & Cunningham, 2010;Perovich et al., 2008), a large amount is also transported out of the Arctic Ocean to southern latitudes where it melts and delivers a considerable volume of freshwater to the global ocean (Kwok, 2004(Kwok, , 2009. The major passageways for southward Arctic Ocean ice export are Fram Strait, Nares Strait, the channels within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA), and the Bering Strait. There is inter-annual variability in Arctic Ocean ice export at these passageways but in general Fram Strait has historically provided the largest contribution with an average area ice export of 880 × 10 3 km 2 (Smedsrud et al., 2017). Arctic Ocean ice area export through Nares Strait and the CAA have been an order of magnitude lower than Fram Strait over the satellite observation era, with respective annual means between 42X10 3 km 2 and 87 × 10 km 2 (

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Comparison of Arctic Ocean Sea Ice Export Between Nares Strait and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

et al. 2023

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“…In Parry Channel thinning is statistically significant in autumn (November and December, -20 cm/decade) and spring (April, -9 cm/decade), with more variability in mid-winter. This is relevant for shipping safety as thinning of the sea ice in November and April would lengthen the summer shipping season (Howell et al, 2022;Mudryk et al, 2021). The Arctic Ocean Periphery shows significant thinning throughout winter except January, with trends as high as 30 cm/decade despite the area continuing to be predominantly covered by MYI.…”

Section: Limitations and Potentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

A long-term proxy for sea ice thickness in the Canadian Arctic: 1996–2020

Glissenaar

Landy

Babb

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Abstract. This study presents a long-term winter sea ice thickness proxy-product for the Canadian Arctic based on a Random Forest Regression model trained on CryoSat-2 observations that provides 25 years of sea ice thickness in the Beaufort Sea, Baffin Bay, and, for the first time, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. An evaluation of the product with in-situ sea ice thickness measurements shows that the presented sea ice thickness proxy product correctly estimates the magnitudes of the ice thickness and accurately captures spatial and temporal variability. The product estimates sea ice thickness within 30 to 50 cm uncertainty. The sea ice thickness proxy-product shows that sea ice is thinning over most of the Canadian Arctic, with a mean trend of −1.4 cm/year in April (corresponding to 35 cm thinning over the 25-year record), but that trends vary locally. The Beaufort Sea and Baffin Bay show significant negative trends during all months, though with peaks in November (−3 cm/yr) and March (−1.8 cm/yr), respectively. The Arctic Ocean Periphery shows thinning above 2 cm/yr during all months but April, with a peak of −3.3 cm/yr in December. The Parry Channel, which is part of the Northwest Passage and relevant for shipping, shows weaker thinning trends, but with high yearly variability. The sea ice thickness proxy product gives, for the first time, the opportunity to study long-term trends and variability in sea ice thickness in the Canadian Arctic, including the narrow channels in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

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Representation of sea ice regimes in the Western Ross Sea, Antarctica, based on satellite imagery and AMPS wind data

et al. 2022

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Sea ice drift data at high spatial resolution and surface wind model output are used to explore atmosphere-sea ice interactions in the Western Ross Sea including the three main polynyas areas; McMurdo Sound polynya (MSP), Terra Nova Bay polynya (TNBP), and the Ross Sea polynya (RSP). This study quantifies the relationship between the winds and sea ice drift and observes the average and annual anomalies across the region. Sea ice drift velocities are based on high-resolution (150 m) Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) images from Envisat for winters between 2002 and 2012. Sea ice motion vectors were first correlated with the corresponding Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) surface wind velocities, and the sensitivity of the spatial correlations and residuals were examined. Four drift parameters were selected (mean drift, the correlation between drift and wind, drift to wind scaling factor, and the directional drift constancy) to perform an unsupervised k-means classification to automatically distinguish six zones of distinctive sea ice characteristics solely based on ice drift and wind information. Results indicate a heterogeneous pattern of sea ice movement at a rate ranging from 0.41 to 2.24% of the wind speed in different areas. We also find that the directional constancy of sea ice drift is closely related to the wind fields. Sea ice drift and wind velocities display the highest correlation in free-drift areas (R = 0.70), followed by deformational drift zones (R = 0.54), and more random drift areas (R = 0.28). The classification illustrates the significance of localized wind-driven sea ice drift in this coastal area resulting in zones of convergence, shear, and free drift. The results also indicate that the most persistent patterns of sea ice motion are near the RSP and TNBP areas, both being driven by strong localized winds. Our findings identify that large-scale sea ice motion is predominantly wind-driven over much of the study area while ocean currents play only a minor role.

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Generating large-scale sea ice motion from Sentinel-1 and the RADARSAT Constellation Mission using the Environment and Climate Change Canada automated sea ice tracking system

Cited by 13 publications

References 38 publications

A Comparison of Arctic Ocean Sea Ice Export Between Nares Strait and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

A Comparison of Arctic Ocean Sea Ice Export Between Nares Strait and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

A long-term proxy for sea ice thickness in the Canadian Arctic: 1996–2020

Representation of sea ice regimes in the Western Ross Sea, Antarctica, based on satellite imagery and AMPS wind data

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