Improvements and analyzes of sea ice drift and deformation retrievals from SAR images

Abstract

Sea ice is a key component of the climate system since it regulates the exchange of heat, the moisture, and the salinity in the polar oceans. The sea ice cover is set into motion and drifts, deforms and fractures under the action of external forces and respective boundary conditions. A positive trend in sea ice mobility, differential kinematics and deformation has been observed in the last decades. This increasing dynamics can increase the ice-albedo feedback loop, one of the most important feedback mechanisms related to climate change. The kinematics of sea ice is observed from space by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and quantified using drift detection algorithms. The requirements that the applied algorithm has to meet regarding resolution, reliability and computing time vary with the type of application. Sea ice kinematics and associated deformation processes occur across a wide range of spatial scales, from meters to thousands of kilometers. It is important to understand how large-scale behavior monitored by satellite relates to and depends on small scale processes of sea ice. Thus, the major objective of this study was to review and validate recent research results of sea ice drift and deformation characteristics obtained at larger scales by extending the analyzes towards smaller scales and examine emerging difficulties and challenges.