Comparison of SSM/I Sea Ice Concentration with Kompsat-1 EOC Images of the Arctic and Antarctic

We have compared Kompsat-1 EOC images (6.6 m resolution, panchromatic) of the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice with SSM/I sea ice concentration (SIC). EOC images were obtained from 10 orbits (624 scenes) across the Arctic sea ice edges from July to August and 11 orbits (676 scenes) across the Antarctic continental edges from September to November, all in year 2005. By applying supervised classification and visual identification to about 12% usable images out of the total scenes, we have classified various sea ice types such as multi-year ice and first- year ice (M+F), Young ice (Y), and New ice (N). EOC SIC were derived and compared with SSMI SIC calculated by NASA Team Algorithm (NTA). In summertime of the Arctic, the correlation coefficient between EOC SIC (M+F+Y+N) and SSM/I SIC were low (0.671) due to rapid temporal and spatial variation of sea ice. For springtime in the Antarctic, EOC SIC (M+F+Y, excluding N) and SSM/I SIC have shown the highest correlation coefficient (0.873). We have concluded that the NTA- derived SSM/I SIC includes Y as well as M+F, but not N.