Studies of the Antarctic sea ice edge and ice extent from satellite and ship observations

Passive microwave-derived ice edge locations in the Antarctic are assessed against in situ observations from ships between 1989 and 2000. During the growth season (March–October), the ship data agrees with satellite data very well, with r2 values of 0.99 and 0.97 for the Bootstrap and Team algorithms, respectively. During the melt season (November–February), the agreement is not so good with the passive microwave ice edge typically 1–2° of latitude south of the observations. This is due to the low concentration and saturated nature of the ice, and the r2 values for this period are 0.92 and 0.80 for the Bootstrap and Team algorithms, respectively. Sensitivity studies show that such an offset in the summer ice edge location can cause significant errors in trend studies of the extent of sea ice cover in the Southern Ocean. The passive microwave ice concentration at the ice edge observed by ship varies greatly, averaging 14% for the Team algorithm and 19% for the Bootstrap. Comparisons between passive microwave data and SAR, Landsat and OLS data during the ice growth season show that while small-scale details in ice edge location are lost, the passive microwave data generally provide good and consistent representation of the higher resolution imagery.