Mapping Sea Ice Surface Topography in High Fidelity With ICESat‐2

Farrell, S. L.; Duncan, Kyle; Buckley, Ellen; Richter‐Menge, Jacqueline A.; Li, Ruohan

doi:10.1029/2020gl090708

Cited by 59 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The Strouhal number ranges from 0.18 to 0.22 for sub-critial flow and f s is the shedding frequency (s -1 ). For a wind speed of 21 m s -1 and a period of 3.5 s, the feature diameter is 11 to 16 m. Along a 1-km transect in the Beaufort Sea, [39] noted ridge widths ranging from 7.1-35.7 m, scales consistent with vortex shedding between 1.7 and 8.5 s, bracketing the observed 3.5-s period.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 51%

“…Specific length scales may be "selected" by winds in contact with sea ice ridges. [39] analyzed ICESat-2 data to compute the power spectra of ridge frequency across the Arctic Ocean. In the central Beaufort Sea, the mean ridge frequency was 2 km −1 , (ranging from~1 and 7 km −1 ) corresponding to a mean ridge spacing of 500 m (ranging from~150 to 1000 m).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Observing Wind-Forced Flexural-Gravity Waves in the Beaufort Sea and Their Relationship to Sea Ice Mechanics

Johnson

Marchenko²,

Dammann

et al. 2021

JMSE

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We developed and deployed two inertial measurement units on mobile pack ice during a U.S. Navy drifting ice campaign in the Beaufort Sea. The ice camp was more than 1000 km from the nearest open water. The sensors were stationed on thick (>1 m) first- and multi–year ice to record 3-D accelerations at 10 Hz for one week during March 2020. During this time, gale-force winds exceeded 21 m per second for several hours during two separate wind events and reached a maximum of 25 m per second. Our observations show similar sets of wave bands were excited during both wind events. One band was centered on a period of ~14 s. Another band arrived several hours later and was centered on ~3.5-s. We find that the observed wave bands match a model dispersion curve for flexural gravity waves in ~1.2-m ice with a Young’s modulus of 3.5 GPa under compressive stresses of ~0.3 MPa. We further evaluate the bending stress and load cycles of the individual wave bands and their potential role in break-up of sea ice. This work demonstrates how observations of waves in sea ice using these and similar sensors can potentially be a valuable field-based tool for evaluating ice mechanics. In particular, this approach can be used to observe and describe the combined mechanical behavior of consolidated floes relevant for understanding sea ice mechanical processes and model development.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 51%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observing Wind-Forced Flexural-Gravity Waves in the Beaufort Sea and Their Relationship to Sea Ice Mechanics

Johnson

Marchenko²,

Dammann

et al. 2021

JMSE

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“…The same is true for sea ice in the Southern Ocean generally, because OIB could only survey a small fraction of the sea ice in this increasingly variable region (Shepherd et al., 2018). OIB conducted regular spring campaigns and occasional summer/fall campaigns, but repeat measurements through the year with an OIB‐caliber instrument suite could provide invaluable insight into the time evolution of sea ice properties, especially snow thickness and fine‐resolution sea ice topography and the distribution and properties of melt ponds, further extending the utility of airborne remote sensing in the evaluation of satellite data products beyond the previous assessments made with the springtime OIB campaigns (e.g., Farrell et al., 2020). Future airborne mission planning could benefit from Observing System Simulation Experiments to more efficiently optimize data collection strategies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Scientific Legacy of NASA’s Operation IceBridge

MacGregor

Boisvert

Medley

et al. 2021

Reviews of Geophysics

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Operation IceBridge (OIB) was a 13-year (2009-2021) airborne mission to survey land and sea ice across the Arctic, Antarctic, and Alaska. Here, we review OIB's goals, instruments, campaigns, key scientific results, and implications for future investigations of the cryosphere. OIB's primary goal was to use airborne laser altimetry to bridge the gap in fine-resolution elevation measurements of ice from space between the conclusion of NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat;2003-2009 and its follow-on, ICESat-2 (launched 2018). Additional scientific requirements were intended to contextualize observed elevation changes using a multisensor suite of radar sounders, gravimeters, magnetometers, and cameras. Using 15 different aircraft, OIB conducted 968 science flights, of which 42% were repeat surveys of land ice, 42% were surveys of previously unmapped terrain across the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, Arctic ice caps, and Alaskan glaciers, and 16% were surveys of sea ice. The combination of an expansive instrument suite and breadth of surveys enabled numerous fundamental advances in our understanding of the Earth's cryosphere. For land ice, OIB dramatically improved knowledge of interannual outlet-glacier variability, ice-sheet, and outlet-glacier thicknesses, snowfall rates on ice sheets, fjord and sub-ice-shelf bathymetry, and ice-sheet MACGREGOR ET AL.

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“…Over specular melt ponds, such estimates are not possible as only the water surface is visible in ICESat-2 returns (Figure 1; Scenes 1b and 2b). Melt pond depth can only be retrieved (Farrell et al, 2020) in cases where the water surface and underlying ice surface are visible in ICESat-2 photon returns (Figure 2; Ponds 1b and 4b).…”

Section: Potential For Obtaining Melt Pond Characteristics With Icesat-2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of Melt Ponds on Arctic Summer Sea Ice From ICESat‐2

Tilling

Bagnardi

Petty

et al. 2020

Geophysical Research Letters

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Hemisphere-wide observations of melt ponds on sea ice are needed to understand their influence on the surface radiation budget of the Arctic Ocean and to extend the satellite sea ice thickness data record. Here we present a first assessment of NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) over individual Arctic sea ice melt ponds with different reflective properties. We use coincident high-resolution satellite imagery from WorldView-2 and Sentinel-2 over different sea ice topographies to show that smooth ponds are highly reflective and can saturate the ICESat-2 photon detection system. Rougher ponds have a more varied backscatter signal, and in some cases both the water and underlying ice surfaces are visible in photon height distributions. Characterizing the complex photon backscatter signals of melt ponds on sea ice is a first step toward automating retrievals of pond parameters such as width, melt pond fraction and depth, and improving higher-level ICESat-2 sea ice height and freeboard products. Plain Language Summary In summer, surface melt water forms ponds that can cover up to half of the Arctic sea ice surface. Because melt ponds reduce the reflective and insulative properties of sea ice, they can alter the Arctic energy budget and ecosystem. The presence of melt ponds also complicates satellite altimeter (radar and laser) estimates of sea ice freeboard (the height of the ice above the ocean) and thickness. Here we combine data from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) laser altimeter and high-resolution satellite imagery to locate individual melt ponds on Arctic sea ice. We explore how melt ponds affect the return laser signal and discuss how ICESat-2 data could be used to retrieve parameters of scientific interest such as melt pond width, fraction, and depth. We finish by summarizing the complications and potential solutions associated with sea ice height and freeboard retrievals from ICESat-2 in summer.

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Mapping Sea Ice Surface Topography in High Fidelity With ICESat‐2

Cited by 59 publications

References 35 publications

Observing Wind-Forced Flexural-Gravity Waves in the Beaufort Sea and Their Relationship to Sea Ice Mechanics

Observing Wind-Forced Flexural-Gravity Waves in the Beaufort Sea and Their Relationship to Sea Ice Mechanics

The Scientific Legacy of NASA’s Operation IceBridge

Detection of Melt Ponds on Arctic Summer Sea Ice From ICESat‐2

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