Synonyms
Frozen sea water; Ice floe; Ice pack
Definitions
Sea ice. Sea ice is any form of ice which originated from the freezing of seawater and is found in the sea.
Sea ice concentration. Sea ice concentration is the fraction of an observational area covered completely by sea ice.
Sea ice extent. Sea ice extent represents the total area covered partially or totally by sea ice. For remote sensing applications, a lower threshold of 15 % in the fraction of sea ice cover is usually applied.
Sea ice
Among the most seasonal and most dynamic parameters on the surface of the Earth is sea ice which at any one time covers about 3–6 % of the planet. In the Northern Hemisphere, sea ice grows in extent from about 6 × 106 km2 to 16 × 106 km2, while in the Southern Hemisphere, it grows from about 3 × 106 km2 to about 19 × 106 km2 (Comiso, 2010; Gloersen et al., 1992). Sea ice is up to about 2–3 m thick in the Northern Hemisphere and about 1 m thick in the Southern Hemisphere (Wadhams, 2002), and...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Allison, I., Brandt, R. E., and Warren, S. G., 1993. East Antarctic sea ice: Albedo, thickness distribution, and snow cover. Journal of Geophysical Research, 98(C7), 12417–12429.
Bjorgo, E., Johannessen, O. M., and Miles, M. W., 1997. Analysis of merged SSMR-SSM/I time series of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice parameters 1978–1995. Geophysical Research Letters, 24, 413–416.
Cavalieri, D. J., Gloersen, P., and Campbell, W. J., 1984. Determination of sea ice parameters with the Nimbus7 SMMR. Journal of Geophysical Research, 89, 5355–5369.
Cavalieri, D. J., Gloersen, P., Parkinson, C., Comiso, J., and Zwally, H. J., 1997. Observed hemispheric asymmetry in global sea ice changes. Science, 278(7), 1104–11067.
Cho, K., Sasaki, N., Shimoda, H., Sakata, T., and Nishio, F., 1996. Evaluation and improvement of SSM/I sea ice concentration algorithms for the Sea of Okhotsk. Journal Remote Sensing of Japan, 16(2), 47–58.
Comiso, J. C., 1986. Characteristics of winter sea ice from satellite multispectral microwave observations. Journal of Geophysical Research, 91(C1), 975–994.
Comiso, J. C., 2002. A rapidly declining Arctic perennial ice cover. Geophysical Research Letters, 29(20), 1956, doi:10.1029/2002GL015650.
Comiso, J. C., 2010. Variability and trends of the global sea ice cover, Chapter 6. In Thomas, D., and Dieckmann, G. (eds.), Sea Ice – An Introduction to Its Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Geology. Oxford: Wiley/Blackwell, pp. 205–246.
Comiso, J. C., and Nishio, F., 2008. Trends in the sea ice cover using enhanced and compatible AMSR-E, SSM/I, and SMMR data. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113, C02S07, doi:10.1029/2007JC004257.
Comiso, J. C., and Parkinson, C. L., 2008. Arctic sea ice parameters from AMSR-E using two techniques, and comparisons with sea ice from SSM/I. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113, C02S05, doi:10.1029/2007JC004255.
Comiso, J. C., and Steffen, K., 2001. Studies of Antarctic sea ice concentrations from satellite data and their applications. Journal of Geophysical Research, 106(C12), 31361–31385.
Comiso, J. C., Cavalieri, D. J., and Markus, T., 2003. Sea ice concentration, ice temperature, and snow depth, using AMSR-E data. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 41(2), 243–252.
Comiso, J. C., Parkinson, C. L., Gersten, R., and Stock, L., 2008. Accelerated decline in the Arctic sea ice cover. Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L01703, doi:10.1029/2007GL031972.
Gloersen, P., Campbell, W., Cavalieri, D., Comiso, J., Parkinson, C., and Zwally, H. J., 1992. Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, 1978–1987: satellite passive microwave observations and analysis. NASA Special Publication, 511, 290.
Gordon, A. L., and Comiso, J. C., 1988. Polynyas in the Southern Ocean. Scientific American, 256, 90–97.
Grenfell, T. C., 1992. Surface-based passive microwave studies of multiyear ice. Journal of Geophysical Research, 97(C3), 3485–3501.
Holland, M. M., and Bitz, C. M., 2003. Polar amplification of climate change in coupled models. Climate Dynamics, 21, 221–232.
Kumerow, C., 1993. On the accuracy of the Eddington approximation for radiative transfer in the microwave frequencies. Journal of Geophysical Research, 98, 2757–2765.
Lubin, D., and Massom, R., 2006. Polar Remote Sensing. Berlin: Springer. Atmosphere and Oceans, Vol. 1.
Martin, S., 2004. An Introduction to Ocean Remote Sensing. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Martin, S., Drucker, R. S., and Kwok, R., 2007. The areas and ice production of western and central Ross Sea polynyas, 1992–2002, and their relation to the B-15 and C-19 iceberg events of 2000 and 2002. Journal of Marine Systems, 68, 201–214.
Massom, R., 1991. Satellite Remote Sensing of Polar Regions. London: Belhaven Press.
Matzler, C., Ramseier, R. O., and Svendsen, E., 1984. Polarization effects in sea ice signatures. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, OE-9, 333–338.
Parkinson, C. L., and Comiso, J. C., 2008. Antarctic sea ice from AMSR-E from two algorithms and comparisons with sea ice from SSM/I. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113, C02S06, doi:10.1029/2007JC004253.
Parkinson, C. L., Cavalieri, D. J., Gloersen, P., Zwally, H. Z., and Comiso, J. C., 1999. Arctic sea ice extents, areas, and trends, 1978–1996. Journal of Geophysical Research, 104(C9), 20837–20856.
Smith, Jr. W., and Comiso, J. C., 2008. The influence of sea ice primary production in the Southern Ocean: a satellite perspective. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113, C05S93, doi:10.1029/2007JC004251.
Steffen, K., Cavalieri, D. J., Comiso, J. C., St. Germain, K., Gloersen, P., Key, J., and Rubinstein, I., 1992. The estimation of geophysical parameters using Passive Microwave Algorithms, Chapter 10. In Carsey, F. (ed.), Microwave Remote Sensing of Sea Ice. Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union, pp. 201–231.
Stroeve, J. C., Serreze, M.C., Fetterer, F., Arbetter, T, Meier, M, Maslanik, J., and Knowles, K., 2004. Tracking the Arctic’s shrinking ice cover: another extreme September minimum in 2004. Geophysical Research Letters, 32, doi:10.1029/2004GL021810.
Svendsen, E., Kloster, K., Farelly, B., Johannessen, O. M., Johanessen, J. A., Campbell, W. J., Gloersen, P., Cavalieri, D., and Matzler, C., 1983. Norwegian remote sensing experiment: evaluation of the Nimbus 7 Scanning Microwave Radiometer for sea ice research. Journal of Geophysical Research, 88(C5), 2755–2769.
Swift, C. T., Fedor, L. S., and Ramseier, R. O., 1985. An algorithm to measure sea ice concentration with microwave radiometers. Journal of Geophysical Research, 90(C1), 1087–1099.
Tucker, W. B., Perovich, D. K., and Gow, A. J., 1992. Physical properties of sea ice relevant to remote sensing, 2. In Carsey, F. (ed.), Microwave Remote Sensing of Sea Ice. Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union, pp. 9–28.
Turner, J., Comiso, J. C., Marshall, G. J., Connolley, W. M., Lachlan-Cope, T. A., Bracegirdle, T., Wang, Z., Meredith, M., and Maksym, T., 2009. Antarctic sea ice extent increases as a result of anthropogenic activity. Geophysical Research Letters, 36, L08502, doi:10.1029/2009GL037524.
Vant, M. R., Gray, R. B., Ramseier, R. O., and Makios, V., 1974. Dielectric properties of fresh and sea ice at 10 and 35 GHz. Journal of Applied Physics, 45(11), 4712–4717.
Wadhams, P., 2002. Ice in the Ocean. London: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers.
Warren, S., 1984. Optical constants of ice from the ultraviolet to the microwave. Applied Optics, 23, 1206–1225.
Weeks, W. F., and Ackley, S. F., 1986. The growth, structure and properties of sea ice. In Unterstiener, N. (ed.), The Geophysics of Sea Ice. New York: Plenum. NATO ASI Ser. B, Vol. 146, pp. 9–164.
Worby, A. P., and Comiso, J. C., 2004. Studies of Antarctic sea ice edge and ice extent from satellite and ship observations. Remote Sensing of Environment, 92(1), 98–111.
Zhang, J., 2007. Increasing Antarctic sea ice under warming atmospheric and oceanic conditions. Journal of Climate, 20, 2515–2529.
Zwally, H. J., Comiso, J. C., Parkinson, C. L., Campbell, W. J., Carsey, F. D., and Gloersen, P., 1983. Antarctic sea ice 1973–1976 from satellite passive microwave observations. NASA Special Publication, 459, 1983.
Zwally, H. J., Comiso, J. C., Parkinson, C. L., Cavalieri, D. J., and Gloersen, P., 2002. Variability of the Antarctic sea ice cover. Journal of Geophysical Research, 107(C5), 1029–1047.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Comiso, J.C. (2014). Sea Ice Concentration and Extent. In: Njoku, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_162
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_162
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-36698-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-36699-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences