Monitoring of Sea Ice and Ice Sheets Kaycee Coleman

Importance of Monitoring Sea Ice Fisheries Ships Offshore Operations Climate Change etails/?ID=42

Some History eFor over 100 year sea ice has been monitored from stations and ships eUntil the 1980’s the main method of keeping track of sea ice was by using Aircraft Surveys eOver the last three decades they have used satellites eInternational Ice Patrol (IIP) is a branch of the United States Coast Guard, they use flight data and satellite data to warm mariners about icebergs

Ice Monitoring Satellites eRadarsat-1 eRadarsat-2 eENVISAT eGRACE eThe Future… dCrysat dNASA ICE Bridge

Radarsat-1 eSatellite-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR). With SAR the distance ot the target is usually about 800km, but reflections can come from anything. eIcebergs are harder to find because they absorb a lot of the energy being sent out which makes they easier to distinguish from ships from a processed image because they appear duller eLaunched in 1995 eTrade off between resolution and area (highest resolution is 8 meters and the smallest image area of 50 km x 50 km)

Radarsat-1 Iceberg detection, confirmed by ships

Radarsat-2 Radarsat-2 ce/index.asp eLaunched Dec. 14, 2007 eFrequencies: C Band SAR Antenna- Transmit & Receive Channel: 5405 MHz (assigned bandwidth 100,540 kHz). X Band Downlink Channel MHz (assigned bandwidth 61,230 kHz). And X Band Downlink Channel MHz (assigned bandwidth 61,230 kHz) eObrit: polar, sun-synchronous orbit  Period: 101 minutes. eImproved ice edge detection, ice type discrimination and ice topography and structure information due to multi-polarization options eSwath Width increased from Radarsat-1

Radarsat-2 Radarsat-2 cation/ice/eoadp2_img.asp e Useful for sea and river ice e By merging three- channel (HH+VV+HV) they are able to see sea ice, open water, and land e HV:HH ratio provides a relative measure of volume scattering (HV) vs. surface scattering (HH) HH Enhanced Ice Type HV Enhanced Ice Edges H/A/Entropy/anistro py/ alpha angle. Result of five iterations

ENVISAT eLaunched March 2002 by the European Space Agency (ESA) eMaps the extent of ice cover eIt is an advanced polar-orbiting satellite that specializes in measurements of the atmosphere, ocean, land, and ice. eIceberg detection by ASAR (advanced synthetic aperture radar), which uses different polarizations and a form of electromagnetic radiation. ASAR uses C band eHas a resolution of 25 meters and coverage area of 100 km by 100 km eThe Polar Platform (PPF) started in They first started off with The Polar Orbiting Earth Mission (POEM-1) but this was eventually broken up in 1993 into ENVISAT to look at the environment and METOP-1 to monitor the meteorology.

ENVISAT id=61 eSun-synchronous polar orbit, 800km altitude, repeat cycle 35 days, 98.55° inclination eSince it has wide swath instruments it can provide complete coverage of the globe in 1-3 days! eTwo X-bands, and Two Ka-bands operating independently so can be used simultaneously.

ENVISAT Alternating Polarization eLike Radarsat-2, it has dual polarization combinations of HH, VV, and HV. The cross- polarization can be limiting for ice with low backscatter (like new thin ice in open water). eThe co-polarization ratio (VV/HH) are best for discriminating ice from open water. This is also good for detection of ridges, and to determine level ice from deformed ice.

ASAR Stripmap (Image) Mode ASAR Wide Swath Mode (VV or HH) Alternating Polarization (VV or HH)

ASARGOMOSRA-2MERISMIPASMWRLRSCIAAATSRDORIS Sea Ice Mapping XXX(X) Sea Ice Motion XXX Sea Ice Processes X Ship Routing X Temp. X Snow Cover XXX Topogr. XXXX Ice Sheet Dynamic XXX(X) ICE ICE

GRACE

GRACE Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment e Tellus - monitors the change in the mass of hydrologic components (the properties/movement of Earth’s water). Most corrections are already applied and it has user friendly grids eMonitor mass loss of ice sheets such as in Greenland and Antarctica. eLooks at exchange of water between ice sheets, glaciers, and the oceans

The Future of Ice Monitoring…. Cryosat-2 NASA Ice Bridge

Cryosat-2 eAlso part of ESA’s Earth Observation Program eCryosat was lost before its initial contact in 2005 eTarget launch will be Feb (it was suppose to be December of this year) eCryosat-2 will observe ice thickness and how it is changing, which is not something that is currently done. So this research will be a break through in the study of global warming. eCryosat-2 will help explain the melting of polar ice in correlation with rising sea surface heights. eIce on land (Ice sheets) can be up to 5km while ice in the ocean could only be a few meters.

Cryosat-2 eWill have an unusually high polar orbit (2 degrees short of true North). This will maximize its coverage of the poles eOne of the main instruments onboard is a Synthetic Aperture Interferometric Radar Altimeter (SIRAL). This is the first sensor of its kind that is specially made for ice.

NASA ICE Bridge eICESat stands for Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite  ICESat-II won ’ t launch until 2014 at the earliest eOperation Ice bridge is a 6 year mission to make up for lost time and information  NASA outfitted a DC-8 jetliner with various sensors including ones that were not on the original ICESat. The jet flies out of Punta Arenas Chile crossing West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula. It will crisscross ice shelves, sea ice, glaciers and the massive western ice sheet collecting critical data for researchers.

e Palmer Station, Antarctica Oct

Questions? Thank You References: Tina Haskins References: Tina Haskins