Abstract:
Antarctic sea ice shows a great importance in the heat exchange between ocean and atmosphere in the Southern hemisphere, and the variations of sea ice would reflect the impact of climate change on the cryosphere. With the launch of the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), densely measuring the Antarctic ocean all year long, monthly sea ice thickness changes can be inspected. However, the consistency between ICESat-2 and its predecessor ICESat remains unknown if a long-term change of the Antarctic sea ice thickness is to be examined. This talk will present the monthly sea ice thickness distribution and characteristics of Antarctica derived from ICESat-2 with an improved One-Layer Method (OLMi), which is specialized in the complex physical structure of Antarctic sea ice. Besides, the discrepancies between ICESat/ICESat-2 are discussed, mainly in the spatial coverage, geometric sampling, and total freeboard derivation methods. Among these factors, the different retrieving methods for the total freeboard are found to be the most influential and support the potential trends investigation of sea ice thickness over the Antarctic.
Short-bio:
Yue Xu is an undergraduate student from the School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University. The supervisors of this Undergraduate Research Project are Prof. Yang Hong and Dr. Huan Li. Her research interests include Antarctic sea ice, hydrological remote sensing.
