Abstract

The ocean and atmosphere exert stresses on sea ice that create elongated cracks and leads which dominate the vertical exchange of energy, especially in cold seasons, despite covering only a small fraction of the surface. Motivated by the need of a spatiotemporal analysis of sea ice lead distribution, a practical workflow was developed to classify the high spatial resolution aerial images DMS (Digital Mapping System) along the Laxon Line in the NASA IceBridge Mission. Four sea ice types (thick ice, thin ice, open water, and shadow) were identified, and relevant sea ice lead parameters were derived for the period of 2012–2018. The spatiotemporal variations of lead fraction along the Laxon Line were verified by ATM (Airborne Topographic Mapper) surface height data and correlated with coarse spatial resolution sea ice motion, air temperature, and wind data through multiple regression models. We found that the freeboard data derived from sea ice leads were compatible with other products. The temperature and ice motion vorticity were the leading factors of the formation of sea ice leads, followed by wind vorticity and kinetic moments of ice motion.

Department(s)

Geography, Geology, and Planning
Physics, Astronomy, and Materials Science

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13204177

Rights Information

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Keywords

Ice motion vorticity, Multiple linear regression, Sea ice classification, Temperature, Wind

Publication Date

10-1-2021

Journal Title

Remote Sensing

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