Validation of Advanced Method for Sea ICE Concentration Retrieval from the AMSR2 Measurements at 89 GHZ

An advanced method for sea ice concentration (SIC) retrieval, based on measurements of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), is validated. An advancement relates to tie point choice for the polarization difference in satellite measurements over open water. The approach is based on the results of physical modeling of the sea ice - ocean - atmosphere system and analysis of the AMSR2 measurements in the Arctic region. The validation is done for summer months using MODIS Sea Ice Extent data as a source of ground-truth information. Areas of 100% open water and 100% sea ice are compared for the MODIS Sea Ice Extent and the AMSR2 retrieved SIC. It is found that the AMSR2 algorithm systematically underestimates 100% SIC as compared with the MODIS 100% SIC in summer months.