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ICESat‐2 Surface Height and Sea Ice Freeboard Assessed With ATM Lidar Acquisitions From Operation IceBridge
Author(s) -
Kwok R.,
Kacimi S.,
Markus T.,
Kurtz N. T.,
Studinger M.,
Sonntag J. G.,
Manizade S. S.,
Boisvert L. N.,
Harbeck J. P.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2019gl084976
Subject(s) - freeboard , environmental science , elevation (ballistics) , remote sensing , satellite , lidar , altimeter , arctic , geology , residual , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , climatology , oceanography , geography , geometry , mathematics , fluidized bed , aerospace engineering , engineering , waste management , algorithm , computer science
Surface height and total freeboard from the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite‐2 (ICESat‐2, IS‐2) sea ice data products (ATL07/ATL10) are assessed with near‐coincident retrievals from the Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) lidar in four dedicated underflights during the 2019 Operation IceBridge Arctic deployment. Over a mix of seasonal and older ice, we find remarkable correlations between the ATM and IS‐2 height profiles and roughness (in ninety‐nine 10‐km segments) that averages to >0.95 and > 0.97, respectively. Regression slopes near unity, between 0.93 and 0.99, indicate close agreement of the height estimates. Larger differences between the surface heights are seen in rougher areas where it is more difficult for the photon heights (used in IS‐2 surface finding) to capture the surface distributions at short length scales. Total freeboard in 10‐km segments, calculated using three different approaches, show variability of 0.02 to 0.04 m. Sources of residual variance, attributable to differences between the two instruments, are discussed.