Accuracy assessment of sea-ice concentrations from MODIS using in-situ measurements [An article from: Remote Sensing of Environment]

This digital document is a journal article from Remote Sensing of Environment, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) potential open water algorithm (MPA) uses infrared satellite images to retrieve sea-ice concentration. From these data, composite maps of the sea-ice concentration are generated at up to 1-km resolution, in order to serve as input for high-resolution atmospheric models. In the present study, aircraft and helicopter-based measurements from the field experiment ''Atmospheric Boundary layer and Sea-ice Interaction Study'' (ABSIS) are used to validate the MPA-based sea-ice concentration maps with in-situ measurements: Aircraft measurements of upwelling longwave radiation are used to derive reference values of the sea-ice concentration. MPA-based maps are checked for accuracy of sea-ice concentration values as well as for the preservation of the sea-ice concentration distribution function. This error analysis yields that sea-ice concentration can be determined from MODIS data with approximately +/-10% error. The compilation of composite maps from multiple overpasses leads to an overall uncertainty of +/-11.5%. Helicopter-based measurements of the sea-ice thickness are used to study the dependence of MPA-based sea-ice concentration with respect to sea-ice thickness. The dependence turns out to be minimal. Finally, MPA sea-ice concentration is compared to the popular Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) sea-ice concentration data. Both data sets are found to agree within +/-7%.