Comparisons of passive microwave remote sensing sea ice concentrations with ship-based visual observations during the CHINARE Arctic summer cruises of 2010–2018

In order to apply satellite data to guiding navigation in the Arctic more effectively,the sea ice concentrations(SIC)derived from passive microwave(PM)products were compared with ship-based visual observations(OBS)collected during the Chinese National Arctic Research Expeditions(CHINARE).A total of 3667 observations were collected in the Arctic summers of 2010,2012,2014,2016,and 2018.PM SIC were derived from the NASA-Team(NT),Bootstrap(BT)and Climate Data Record(CDR)algorithms based on the SSMIS sensor,as well as the BT,enhanced NASA-Team(NT2)and ARTIST Sea Ice(ASI)algorithms based on AMSR-E/AMSR-2 sensors.The daily arithmetic average of PM SIC values and the daily weighted average of OBS SIC values were used for the comparisons.The correlation coefficients(CC),biases and root mean square deviations(RMSD)between PM SIC and OBS SIC were compared in terms of the overall trend,and under mild/normal/severe ice conditions.Using the OBS data,the influences of floe size and ice thickness on the SIC retrieval of different PM products were evaluated by calculating the daily weighted average of floe size code and ice thickness.Our results show that CC values range from 0.89(AMSR-E/AMSR-2 NT2)to 0.95(SSMIS NT),biases range from−3.96%(SSMIS NT)to 12.05%(AMSR-E/AMSR-2 NT2),and RMSD values range from 10.81%(SSMIS NT)to 20.15%(AMSR-E/AMSR-2 NT2).Floe size has a significant influence on the SIC retrievals of the PM products,and most of the PM products tend to underestimate SIC under smaller floe size conditions and overestimate SIC under larger floe size conditions.Ice thickness thicker than 30 cm does not have a significant influence on the SIC retrieval of PM products.Overall,the best(worst)agreement occurs between OBS SIC and SSMIS NT(AMSR-E/AMSR-2 NT2)SIC in the Arctic summer.

STUDY AND APPLICATION OF THE AERIAL PASSIVE MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING

Ⅰ. Introduction Over the past two decades, microwave remote sensing has evolved into a focal point in the remote sensing area. This is due to the fact that in microwave band, we can acquire physical parameters about ocean, terrain and atmosphere on all weather condition. Research and application work about the aerial passive micro wave remote sensors has been done at Changchun Institute of Geography since 1973, under the unitary planning of Academia Sinica. Microwave radiometers of six freqency bands have been developed. Numerous remote sensing experiments were carried out, and large amount of scientific data were accumulated. Recently, theoretical models have

A lake ice phenology dataset for the Northern Hemisphere based on passive microwave remote sensing

Lake ice phenology(LIP)is an essential indicator of climate change and helps with understanding of the regional characteristics of climate change impacts.Ground observation records and remote sensing retrieval products of lake ice phenology are abundant for Europe,North America,and the Tibetan Plateau,but there is a lack of data for inner Eurasia.In this work,enhanced-resolution passive microwave satellite data(PMW)were used to investigate the Northern Hemisphere Lake Ice Phenology(PMW LIP).The Freeze Onset(FO),Complete Ice Cover(CIC),Melt Onset(MO),and Complete Ice Free(CIF)dates were derived for 753 lakes,including 409 lakes for which ice phenology retrievals were available for the period 1978 to 2020 and 344 lakes for which these were available for 2002 to 2020.Verification of the PMW LIP using ground records gave correlation coefficients of 0.93 and 0.84 for CIC and CIF,respectively,and the corresponding values of the RMSE were 11.84 and 10.07 days.The lake ice phenology in this dataset was significantly correlated(P<0.001)with that obtained from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS)data-the average correlation coefficient was 0.90 and the average RMSE was 7.87 days.The minimum RMSE was 4.39 days for CIF.The PMW is not affected by the weather or the amount of sunlight and thus provides more reliable data about the freezing and thawing process information than MODIS observations.The PMW LIP dataset pro-vides the basic freeze-thaw data that is required for research into lake ice and the impact of climate change in the cold regions of the Northern Hemisphere.The dataset is available at http://www.doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.j00076.00081.

Coupling numerical simulation with remotely sensed information for the study of frozen soil dynamics

The acquisition of spatial-temporal information of frozen soil is fundamental for the study of frozen soil dynamics and its feedback to climate change in cold regions.With advancement of remote sensing and better understanding of frozen soil dynamics,discrimination of freeze and thaw status of surface soil based on passive microwave remote sensing and numerical simulation of frozen soil processes under water and heat transfer principles provides valuable means for regional and global frozen soil dynamic monitoring and systematic spatial-temporal responses to global change.However,as an important data source of frozen soil processes,remotely sensed information has not yet been fully utilized in the numerical simulation of frozen soil processes.Although great progress has been made in remote sensing and frozen soil physics,yet few frozen soil research has been done on the application of remotely sensed information in association with the numerical model for frozen soil process studies.In the present study,a distributed numerical model for frozen soil dynamic studies based on coupled water-heat transferring theory in association with remotely sensed frozen soil datasets was developed.In order to reduce the uncertainty of the simulation,the remotely sensed frozen soil information was used to monitor and modify relevant parameters in the process of model simulation.The remotely sensed information and numerically simulated spatial-temporal frozen soil processes were validated by in-situ field observations in cold regions near the town of Naqu on the East-Central Tibetan Plateau.The results suggest that the overall accuracy of the algorithm for discriminating freeze and thaw status of surface soil based on passive microwave remote sensing was more than 95%.These results provided an accurate initial freeze and thaw status of surface soil for coupling and calibrating the numerical model of this study.The numerically simulated frozen soil processes demonstrated good performance of the distributed numerical model based on the coupled water-heat transferring theory.The relatively larger uncertainties of the numerical model were found in alternating periods between freezing and thawing of surface soil.The average accuracy increased by about 5%after integrating remotely sensed information on the surface soil.The simulation accuracy was significantly improved,especially in transition periods between freezing and thawing of the surface soil.

Historical and real-time estimation of snow depth in Eurasia based on multiple passive microwave data

Current snow depth datasets demonstrate large discrepancies in the spatial pattern in Eurasia,and the lagging updates of datasets do not meet the operational requirements of the meteorological service department.This study developed a dynamic retrieval method for daily snow depth over Eurasia based on cross-sensor calibrated microwave brightness temperatures to enhance retrieval accuracy and meet the requirements of operational work.These brightness temperatures were detected by microwave radiometer imager carried on the FengYun 3(FY-3)satellite and the special sensor microwave imager/sounder carried on the USA Defense Meteorological Satellite Program series satellites,which use the fewest sensors to provide the longest data and consequently introduce minimal errors during inter-sensor calibration.Firstly,inter-sensor calibration was conducted amongst brightness temperatures collected by the three sensors.A spatiotemporal dynamic relationship between snow depth and microwave brightness temperature gradient was then established,overcoming the large uncertainties induced by varying snow characteristics.This relationship can be utilised in FY-3 satellite data for operational service to obtain real-time snow depth.The generated daily snow depth dataset from 1988 to 2021 presents similar spatial patterns of snow depth to those observed in situ.Against in situ snow depth,the overall bias and root mean square error are−2.04 and 6.49 cm,respectively,facilitating considerable improvements in accuracy compared with the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 snow depth product,which adopts the static algorithm.Further analysis shows an overall decreasing trend from 1988 to 2021 for annual and monthly mean snow depths,demonstrating a noticeable reduction since around 2000.The reduction in monthly mean snow depth started earlier in shallow snow months than in deep snow months.

A novel fine-resolution snow depth retrieval model to revealdetailed spatiotemporal patterns of snow cover in NortheastChina

Seasonal snow cover is a key component of the global climate and hydrological system,it has drawn considerable attention under global warming conditions.Although several passive microwave(PMW)snow depth(SD)products have been developed since the 1970s,they inherit noticeable errors and uncertainties when representing spatial distributions and temporal changes of SD,especially in complex mountainous regions.In this paper,we developed afine-resolution SD retrieval model(FSDM)using machine learning to improve SD estimation quality for Northeast China and produced a long-term,fine-resolution,daily SD dataset.The accuracies of the FSDM dataset were evaluated against in-situ SD data along with existing SD products.The results showed the FSDM dataset provided satisfactory inversion accuracy in spatiotemporal evaluation,with the root-mean-square error(RMSE),bias,and correlation coefficient(R)of 7.10 cm,-0.13 cm,and 0.60.Additionally,we analyzed the spatiotemporal variations of SD in Northeast China and found that snow cover was mainly distributed in the Greater Khingan Range,Lesser Khingan Mountains,and Changbai Mountain regions.The SD exhibited high-low distribution patterns with the increased latitude.The annual mean SD slightly increased at the rate of 0.029 cm/year during 1987-2018.

A simplified physically-based algorithm for surface soil moisture retrieval using AMSR-E data

A simplified physically-based algorithm for surface soil moisture inversion from satellite microwave radiometer data is presented. The algorithm is based on a radiative transfer model, and the assumption that the optical depth of the vegetation is polarization independent. The algorithm combines the effects of vegetation and roughness into a single parameter. Then the microwave polarization difference index （MPDI） is used to eliminate the effects of surface temperature, and to obtain soil moisture, through a nonlinear iterative procedure. To verify the present algorithm, the 6.9 GHz dual-polarized brightness temperature data from the Advanced Micro- wave Scanning Radiometer （AMSR-E） were used. Then the soil moisture values retrieved by the present algorithm were validated by in-situ data from 20 sites in the Tibetan Plateau, and compared with both the NASA AMSR-E soil moisture products, and Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity （SMOS） soil moisture products. The results show that the soil moisture retrieved by the present algorithm agrees better with ground measurements than the two satellite products. The advantage of the algorithm is that it doesn＇t require field observations of soil moisture, surface roughness, or canopy biophysical data as calibration parameters, and needs only single-frequency brightness temperature observations during the whole retrieval process.

Daily snow water equivalent product with SMMR,SSM/I and SSMIS from 1980 to 2020 over China

The reliable knowledge of seasonal snow volume and its trend is very important to understand Earth’s climate system.Thus,a long-time snow water equivalent(SWE)dataset is necessary.This work presents a daily SWE product of 1980-2020 with a linear unmixing method through passive microwave data including SMMR,SSM/I and SSMIS over China after cross-calibration and bias-correction.The unbiased root-mean-square error of snow depth is about 5-7 cm,corresponding to 10-15 mm for SWE,when compared with stations measurements and field snow course data.The spatial patterns and trends of SWE over China present significant regional differences.The overall slope trend presented an insignificant decreasing pattern during 1980-2020 over China;however,there is an obvious fluctuation,i.e.a significant decrease trend during the period 1980-1990,an upward trend from 2005 to 2009,a significant downward trend from 2009 to 2018.The increase of SWE occurred in the Northeast Plain,with an increase trend of 0.2 mm per year.Whereas in the Hengduan Mountains,it presented a downward trend of SWE,up to−0.3 mm per year.In the North Xinjiang,SWE has an increasing trend in the Junggar Basin,while it shows a decreasing trend in the Tianshan and Altai Mountains.

Generation of daily snow depth from multi-source satellite images and in situ observations

Snow depth （SD） is a key parameter for research into global climate changes and land surface processes. A method was developed to obtain daily SD images at a higher 4 km spatial resolution and higher precision with SD measurements from in situ observations and passive microwave remote sensing of Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS （AMSR-E） and snow cover measurements of the Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System （IMS）. AMSR-E SD at 25 km spatial resolution was retrieved from AMSR-E products of snow density and snow water equivalent and then corrected using the SD from in situ observations and IMS snow cover. Corrected AMSR-E SD images were then resampled to act as ＂virtual＂ in situ observations to combine with the real in situ observations to interpolate at 4 km spatial resolution SD using the Cressman method. Finally, daily SD data generation for several regions of China demonstrated that the method is well suited to the generation of higher spatial resolution SD data in regions with a lower Digital Elevation Model （DEM） but not so well suited to regions at high altitude and with an undulating terrain, such as the Tibetan Plateau. Analysis of the longer time period SD data generation for January between 2003 and 2010 in northern Xinjiang also demonstrated the feasibility of the method.