Publications

Xie, YY; Liu, TT; Li, N; Lei, RB (2024). Changes in area fraction of sediment-laden sea ice in the Arctic Ocean during 2000 to 2021. ACTA OCEANOLOGICA SINICA, 43(9), 81-92.

Abstract
Sediment-laden sea ice plays an important role in Arctic sediment transport and biogeochemical cycles, as well as the shortwave radiation budget and melt onset of ice surface. However, at present, there is a lack of efficient observation approach from both space and in situ for the coverage of Arctic sediment-laden sea ice. Thus, both spatial distribution and long-term changes in area fraction of such ice floes are still unclear. This study proposes a new classification method to extract Arctic sediment-laden sea ice on the basic of the difference in spectral characteristics between sediment-laden sea ice and clean sea ice in the visible band using the MOD09A1 data with the resolution of 500 m, and obtains its area fraction over the pan Arctic Ocean during 2000-2021. Compared with Landsat-8 true color verification images with a resolution of 30 m, the overall accuracy of our classification method is 92.3%, and the Kappa coefficient is 0.84. The impact of clouds on the results of recognition and spatiotemporal changes of sediment-laden sea ice is relatively small from June to July, compared to that in May or August. Spatially, sediment-laden sea ice mostly appears over the marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, especially the continental shelf of Chukchi Sea and the Siberian seas. Associated with the retreat of Arctic sea ice extent, the total area of sediment-laden sea ice in June-July also shows a significant decreasing trend of 8.99 x 104 km2 per year. The occurrence of sediment-laden sea ice over the Arctic Ocean in June-July leads to the reduce of surface albedo over the ice-covered ocean by 14.1%. This study will help thoroughly understanding of the role of sediment-laden sea ice in the evolution of Arctic climate system and marine ecological environment, as well as the heat budget and mass balance of sea ice itself.

DOI:
10.1007/s13131-024-2364-1

ISSN:
0253-505X