The EUMETSAT sea ice concentration climate data record
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Abstract
Abstract. An Arctic and Antarctic sea ice area and extent dataset has been generated by EUMETSAT's Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSISAF) using the record of microwave radiometer data from NASA's Nimbus 7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave radiometer (SMMR) and the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) and Special Sensor Microwave Imager and Sounder (SSMIS) satellite sensors. The dataset covers the period from October 1978 to April 2015 and updates and further developments are planned for the next phase of the project. The methodology for computing the sea ice concentration uses (1) numerical weather prediction (NWP) data input to a radiative transfer model for reduction of the impact of weather conditions on the measured brightness temperatures; (2) dynamical algorithm tie points to mitigate trends in residual atmospheric, sea ice, and water emission characteristics and inter-sensor differences/biases; and (3) a hybrid sea ice concentration algorithm using the Bristol algorithm over ice and the Bootstrap algorithm in frequency mode over open water. A new sea ice concentration uncertainty algorithm has been developed to estimate the spatial and temporal variability in sea ice concentration retrieval accuracy. A comparison to US National Ice Center sea ice charts from the Arctic and the Antarctic shows that ice concentrations are higher in the ice charts than estimated from the radiometer data at intermediate sea ice concentrations between open water and 100 % ice. The sea ice concentration climate data record is available for download at www.osi-saf.org, including documentation.
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The algorithms used in the SIC CDRs are evolutions of those already applied in the previous version of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF CDR (OSI-409).
“In many cases, these algorithms are evolutions of those already applied in the previous version of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF CDR (OSI-409, Tonboe et al., 2016).”
From Version 2 of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF and ESA CCI sea-ice concentration climate data records (2019) · cites this paper as Tonboe et al., 2016
Section 2.3 describes the EUMETSAT record’s hybrid Bristol–Bootstrap algorithm, supporting the claim that the record uses established sea-ice concentration algorithms. The References name OSI-409 and OSI-409a, but the paper does not say which algorithms OSI-409 used or establish that the algorithms in later SIC CDRs evolved from it. (LLM, conf=0.80)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredValues of K were tuned using a footprint simulator and selected cloud-free scenes of the marginal ice zone imaged by MODIS as described in Tonboe et al. (2016).
“Values of K were tuned using a footprint simulator and selected cloud-free scenes of the marginal ice zone imaged by the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) as described in Tonboe et al. (2016).”
From Version 2 of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF and ESA CCI sea-ice concentration climate data records (2019) · cites this paper as Tonboe et al. (2016)
Section 1.4 describes selecting cloud-free MODIS scenes with different ice concentrations, and Section 2.4.2 describes using them in a satellite-footprint simulation. Those sections use the simulation to estimate smearing uncertainty; they do not say that values of K were tuned with it. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe L2 chain holds an iteration similar to the workflow in Tonboe et al. (2016) and stemming from the developments of Andersen et al. (2006).
“The L2 chain holds an iteration (marked by the”
From Version 2 of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF and ESA CCI sea-ice concentration climate data records (2019) · cites this paper as Tonboe et al., 2016
All three CDRs share the same algorithm baseline, which is a continuation of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF SIC approach and a series of innovations contributed mostly by the ESA CCI activities.
“All three share the same algorithm baseline, which is both a continuation of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF SIC approach (Andersen et al., 2006;Tonboe et al., 2016) and a series of innovations contributed to mostly by the ESA CCI activities.”
From Version 2 of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF and ESA CCI sea-ice concentration climate data records (2019) · cites this paper as Tonboe et al., 2016
OSI-450 has been released by EUMETSAT OSI SAF and is a fully revised version of its predecessor OSI-409.
“OSI-450 has been released by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF, http://www.osi-saf.org/,last access: 15 June 2018) and is a fully revised version of its predecessor OSI-409 (Tonboe et al., 2016).”
From Version 2 of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF and ESA CCI sea-ice concentration climate data records (2019) · cites this paper as Tonboe et al., 2016
The Data availability section says the OSI SAF sea ice concentration record was available for download, and the References identify OSI-409a. The Future work section describes a later update as planned, but our copy does not mention OSI-450 or say that it was released as a fully revised version of OSI-409 (searched: OSI-450, OSI-409, revised version). (LLM, conf=0.74)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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Cites
No references could be resolved yet.
Research works printed but not linked: 15
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- Tonboe, R. T., Eastwood, S., Lavergne, T., Sørensen, A. M., Rath- mann, N., Dybkjær, G., Pedersen, L. T., Høyer, J. L., and Kern, S.: OSI SAF global sea ice concentration data record -OSI-409a, doi:10.15770/EUM_SAF_OSI_0005, 2015a. · DOI
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Version 2 of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF and ESA CCI sea-ice concentration climate data records
Lavergne, T., Sørensen, A. M., Kern, S., Tonboe, R., Notz, D., Aaboe, S., Bell, L., Dybkjær, G., Eastwood, S., Gabarro, C., et al. (2019) · The Cryosphere · doi:10.5194/tc-13-49-2019 · Cited by 469 · see citing works
“It is an evolution of the algorithms used in Tonboe et al. (2016).”
InfluentialSelf-citation
- Authors
- Tonboe, R. T., Eastwood, S., Lavergne, T., Sørensen, A. M., Rathmann, N., Dybkjær, G., Pedersen, L. T., Høyer, J. L., & Kern, S.
- Affiliations
- Danish Meteorological Institute (DK)
- Norwegian Meteorological Institute (NO)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Tonboe, Rasmus T.
- Eastwood, Steinar
- Lavergne, Thomas
- Sørensen, Atle M.
- Rathmann, Nicholas
- Dybkjær, Gorm
- Pedersen, Leif Toudal
- Høyer, Jacob L.
- Kern, Stefan
- ORCID
- Venue
- The Cryosphere
- Publisher
- Copernicus GmbH
- Published
- 2016-09-28
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 2275-2290
- ISSN
- 1994-0416 (ISSN-L)
- 1994-0424
- OpenAlex
- W2524149850
- Cited by
- 122
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 5.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Cryosphere (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Cryospheric studies and observations
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
- Keywords
- sea ice concentration, climate data record, Arctic sea ice, Antarctic sea ice, microwave radiometry, SMMR, SSM/I, SSMIS, brightness temperature, radiative transfer modeling, numerical weather prediction, bootstrap algorithm, retrieval uncertainty, sea ice charts
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