Meltpond2000
Meltpond2000 is the first in a series of Arctic and Antarctic aircraft
campaigns planned as part of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua
sea ice validation program for the EOS Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer
(AMSR-E). This prelaunch Arctic field campaign was carried out between
June 25 and July 6, 2000 from Thule, Greenland with the objective of
quantifying the errors incurred by the AMSR-E sea ice algorithms resulting
from the presence of melt ponds. A secondary objective of the mission
was to develop a microwave capability to discriminate between melt ponds
and seawater using low-frequency microwave radiometers. Meltpond2000
was a multiagency effort involving personnel from the Navy, NOAA, and
NASA. The field component of the mission consisted of making five 8-hour
flights from Thule Air Base, Greenland with a Naval
Air Warfare Center P-3 aircraft over portions of Baffin Bay and
the Canadian Arctic. The aircraft sensors were provided and operated
by the Microwave Radiometry Group of NOAA's
Environmental Technology Laboratory. A Navy ice observer with the
National Ice Center provided visual documentation of surface ice conditions
during each of the flights. Two of the five flights were coordinated
with Canadian scientists making surface measurements of melt ponds at
an ice camp
located near Resolute Bay, Canada. Coordination with the Canadians will
provide additional information on surface characteristics and will be
of great value in the interpretation of the aircraft and high-resolution
satellite data sets. (click here to
go back to projects page)
Expedition
Photos
3D Fly-Through Animations
A Multi-Sensor View of the Baffin Bay Flight Region
(3 min 35 sec) |
|
|
Arctic Sea Ice Concentration, June 27 2000 (2 min 35
sec) |
|
|
These animations show data from various satellite and aircraft sensors
(SSMI, AVHRR, Landsat, MODIS, NOAA Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer)
on June 27, 2000 along with digital elevation and bathymetric data for
the Baffin Bay area of the Meltpond2000 flights.
The SSMI Sea Ice Concentration was derived from SSMI brightness temperatures
(obtained from NSIDC) using the NASA Team sea ice algoritm. The AVHRR
data was obtained from NOAA's Satellite Active Archive as swath data.
The Landsat scenes were purchased from the USGS. The PSR instrument
data was obtained during the Meltpond2000 expedition. The MODIS data
was obtained through the EOS Data Gateway.
The elevation data is from the USGS GTOPO30 global digital elevation
model. This was combined with bathymetric data from NOAA to form the
3D elevation grid over which the other data sets were draped.
Each of the data sets initially had a different resolution and projection.
Data Set |
Resolution |
Projection |
SSMI |
25 km |
polar stereographic |
AVHRR |
1 km |
swath |
MODIS |
500 m |
swath |
Landsat |
30 m |
polar stereographic |
NOAA PSR |
0.5 - 1 km |
swath |
USGS GTOPO30 DEM |
30 arcsecond (~ 1km) |
lat-lon |
Bathymetry |
2.5 km |
polar stereographic |
These were reprojected and regridded onto a common 500 m polar stereographic
grid.
Images
(click on images
to view the larger versions)
These are a few frames from the 3D fly-through animations showing the
Meltpond2000 location with digital elevation data along with the AVHRR,
Landsat and MODIS satellite data.