Sea ice cover, edge and thickness Measurements Made by Earth Observation Satellites

CEOS EO HANDBOOK – MEASUREMENTS

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Sea ice cover, edge and thickness

Sea ice variability is a key indicator of climate variability and change which is characterised by a number of parameters. In addition to monitoring ice extent (the total area covered by ice at any concentration) and concentration (the area covered by ice per unit area of ocean), it is necessary to know ice thickness in order to estimate sea ice volume or mass balance.

Detailed Measurement	Description*	Instruments	Timeline
Glacier Area	2D vector outlines of glaciers and ice caps (delineating glacier area)	1 instrument
Glacier cover Link:	Fraction of a land area covered by permanent ice - Physical unit [ % ], Accuracy unit [ % ]	17 instruments
Glacier motion	Variation of glacier boundary in a specific direction. [Unit of measurement -m/y]	18 instruments
Iceberg fractional cover	Fraction of the ground area covered by icebergs. [Unit of measurement - %]	10 instruments
Iceberg height	Vertical projection of an area covered by icebergs. [Unit of measurement - m]	0 instruments
Sea-ice Concentration	The ocean area fraction of a cell covered by sea ice.	4 instruments
Sea-ice cover Link:	Fraction of ice in an ocean area - Physical unit: [ % ] - Accuracy unit: [ % ].	62 instruments
Sea-ice motion Link:	Sea ice motion Measuring Units kmd-1 Uncertainty Units kmd-1	3 instruments
Sea-ice surface temperature	Temperature of the surface of sea-ice - Physical unit: [ K ] - Accuracy unit: [ K ].	9 instruments
Sea-ice thickness Link:	Thickness of the ice sheet - related to sea-ice elevation and density - Physical unit [ cm ], Accuracy unit [ cm ]	15 instruments
Sea-ice type	Parameter convolving several factors (age, roughness, density, etc.) - Accuracy expressed as number of classes. Actually [ classes-1 ] is used, so that smaller figure corresponds to better performance, as usual.	21 instruments

* Description adapted from WMO.