Albedo of Coastal Landfast Sea Ice in Prydz Bay,Antarctica:Observations and Parameterization

The snow/sea-ice albedo was measured over coastal landfast sea ice in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica（off Zhongshan Station）during the austral spring and summer of 2010 and 2011. The variation of the observed albedo was a combination of a gradual seasonal transition from spring to summer and abrupt changes resulting from synoptic events, including snowfall, blowing snow, and overcast skies. The measured albedo ranged from 0.94 over thick fresh snow to 0.36 over melting sea ice. It was found that snow thickness was the most important factor influencing the albedo variation, while synoptic events and overcast skies could increase the albedo by about 0.18 and 0.06, respectively. The in-situ measured albedo and related physical parameters（e.g., snow thickness, ice thickness, surface temperature, and air temperature） were then used to evaluate four different snow/ice albedo parameterizations used in a variety of climate models. The parameterized albedos showed substantial discrepancies compared to the observed albedo, particularly during the summer melt period, even though more complex parameterizations yielded more realistic variations than simple ones. A modified parameterization was developed,which further considered synoptic events, cloud cover, and the local landfast sea-ice surface characteristics. The resulting parameterized albedo showed very good agreement with the observed albedo.

Aerial observations of sea ice and melt ponds near the North Pole during CHINARE2010

An aerial photography has been used to provide validation data on sea ice near the North Pole where most polar orbiting satellites cannot cover. This kind of data can also be used as a supplement for missing data and for reducing the uncertainty of data interpolation. The aerial photos are analyzed near the North Pole collected during the Chinese national arctic research expedition in the summer of 2010（CHINARE2010）. The result shows that the average fraction of open water increases from the ice camp at approximately 87°N to the North Pole, resulting in the decrease in the sea ice. The average sea ice concentration is only 62.0% for the two flights（16 and 19 August 2010）. The average albedo（0.42） estimated from the area ratios among snow-covered ice,melt pond and water is slightly lower than the 0.49 of HOTRAX 2005. The data on 19 August 2010 shows that the albedo decreases from the ice camp at approximately 87°N to the North Pole, primarily due to the decrease in the fraction of snow-covered ice and the increase in fractions of melt-pond and open-water. The ice concentration from the aerial photos and AMSR-E（The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System） images at 87.0°–87.5°N exhibits similar spatial patterns, although the AMSR-E concentration is approximately 18.0%（on average） higher than aerial photos. This can be attributed to the 6.25 km resolution of AMSR-E, which cannot separate melt ponds/submerged ice from ice and cannot detect the small leads between floes. Thus, the aerial photos would play an important role in providing high-resolution independent estimates of the ice concentration and the fraction of melt pond cover to validate and/or supplement space-borne remote sensing products near the North Pole.

Chinese GF-1 and GF-3 satellites observed the giant iceberg calving off the Larsen C Ice Shelf

A massive iceberg, named A-68 by National Ice Center （NIC） officially, calved away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica on luly 12, 2017. The iceberg A-68 is about 5 800 km2, weighs more than a trillion tons and it is one of the biggest ever recorded icebergs. Chinese satellites Gaofen-1 （GF-1） and Gaofen-3 （GF-3） data was used to monitoring the propagation of the rift and the iceberg by National Satellite Ocean Application Service （NSOAS）.