Research

Version 2 of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF and ESA CCI sea-ice concentration climate data records

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Abstract

We introduce the OSI-450, the SICCI-25km and the SICCI-50km climate datarecords of gridded global sea-ice concentration. These three records arederived from passive microwave satellite data and offer three distinct advantages compared to existing records: first, all three records provide quantitative information on uncertainty and possibly applied filtering at every grid point and every time step. Second, they are based on dynamic tiepoints, which capture the time evolution of surface characteristics of the ice cover and accommodate potential calibration differences between satellite missions. Third, they are produced in the context of sustained services offering committed extension, documentation, traceability, and user support.The three records differ in the underlying satellite data (SMMR & SSM/I& SSMIS or AMSR-E & AMSR2), in the imaging frequency channels (37 GHzand either 6 or 19 GHz), in their horizontal resolution (25 or 50 km), and in the time period they cover. We introduce the underlying algorithms and provide an evaluation. We find that all three records compare well within dependent estimates of sea-ice concentration both in regions with very highsea-ice concentration and in regions with very low sea-ice concentration. We hence trust that these records will prove helpful for a better understanding of the evolution of the Earth's sea-ice cover.