Evolution of Sea Ice Area in the Liaodong Bay during the Winter of 2009-2010

Two kinds of remote sensing data with different spatial resolution from MODIS and China Environment Satellite are used to retrieve the sea ice area of Liaodong Bay, and the evolution process of sea ice area is obtained for 2009-2010 winter. In the freezing period, the sea ice area and the accumulated average daily temperature below -2°C(accumulated freezing temperature) show a positive linear relationship with correlation coefficient of 0.97. In the melting period, the sea ice area and the accumulated average daily temperature above 0°C (accumulated melting temperature) show a negative linear relationship with correlation coefficient of -0.91. The complete process of sea ice formation and disappearance in Liaodong Bay can be approximately described by a binary quadratic equation with variables of accumulated freezing temperature and accumulated melting temperature, which suggests that the air temperature is the main factor affecting sea ice evolution.