Thin Arctic sea ice in L-band observations and an ocean reanalysis

Tietsche, Steffen; Alonso-Balmaseda, Magdalena; Rosnay, Patricia; Zuo, Hao; Tian-Kunze, Xiangshan; Kaleschke, Lars

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2051-2018

Articles | Volume 12, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2051-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2051-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 6

Research article

|

14 Jun 2018

Research article |

| 14 Jun 2018

Thin Arctic sea ice in L-band observations and an ocean reanalysis

Steffen Tietsche, Magdalena Alonso-Balmaseda, Patricia Rosnay, Hao Zuo, Xiangshan Tian-Kunze, and Lars Kaleschke

Data sets

SMOS Daily sea ice thickness version 3, updated current year, 15 October 2011 to 30 November 2017 X. Tian-Kunze, L. Kaleschke, and N. Maass https://icdc.cen.uni-hamburg.de/1/daten/cryosphere/l3c-smos-sit.html

Short summary

We compare Arctic sea-ice thickness from L-band microwave satellite observations and an ocean–sea ice reanalysis. There is good agreement for some regions and times but systematic discrepancy in others. Errors in both the reanalysis and observational products contribute to these discrepancies. Thus, we recommend proceeding with caution when using these observations for model validation or data assimilation. At the same time we emphasise their unique value for improving sea-ice forecast models.