Articles | Volume 13, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2869-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2869-2019
Research article
 | 
08 Nov 2019
Research article |  | 08 Nov 2019

Estimating the sea ice floe size distribution using satellite altimetry: theory, climatology, and model comparison

Christopher Horvat, Lettie A. Roach, Rachel Tilling, Cecilia M. Bitz, Baylor Fox-Kemper, Colin Guider, Kaitlin Hill, Andy Ridout, and Andrew Shepherd

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AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
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AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (13 Sep 2019) by Jennifer Hutchings
AR by Christopher Horvat on behalf of the Authors (19 Sep 2019)  Author's response    Manuscript
ED: Publish as is (23 Sep 2019) by Jennifer Hutchings
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Short summary
Changes in the floe size distribution (FSD) are important for sea ice evolution but to date largely unobserved and unknown. Climate models, forecast centres, ship captains, and logistic specialists cannot currently obtain statistical information about sea ice floe size on demand. We develop a new method to observe the FSD at global scales and high temporal and spatial resolution. With refinement, this method can provide crucial information for polar ship routing and real-time forecasting.