Remote Sensing of Sea Ice in the Northern Sea Route : Studies and Applications

Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii List of figures xv List of tables xxiii List of abbreviations xxvii List of authors xxxi List of contributing authors xxxiii Introduction xxxvii History of the Northern Sea Route 1(24) First voyages 1(1) Voyages in the 16th--17th centuries 2(4) From the 18th to the early 20th century 6(8) Expeditions and geographical discoveries 6(7) Beginning of trade shipping 13(1) The Soviet-Russian system for supporting navigation 14(11) Sea ice conditions in the Arctic and in the Northern Sea Route 25(40) Sea ice conditions in the Arctic Ocean 25(19) Seasonal changes 25(4) Ice drift and its spatial and temporal variability 29(8) Ice cover distribution 37(7) The Arctic Eurasian Shelf seas 44(21) Ice formation and ice thickness growth 46(8) Ice exchange of the Arctic seas with the Arctic Basin 54(4) Landfast ice and polynyas of the Arctic seas 58(2) Ice distribution during ice cover decay 60(5) Sea ice monitoring 65(84) History of ice monitoring in the Northern Sea Route 65(51) Airborne ice reconnaissance (1924--1932) 66(2) Visual observations of sea ice from aircraft (1933--1950) 68(5) Development of aircraft and satellite remote sensing (1951--1984) 73(18) The Okean radar satellite 91(8) Creation and development of an automated ice information system for the Arctic (1975--1991) 99(2) Satellite synthetic aperture radar 101(8) Passive microwave radiometry 109(7) Operational sea ice monitoring in the Northern Sea Route 116(6) Organization of monitoring 116(2) Information support for users 118(4) User requirements for sea ice information on the Northern Sea Route 122(15) General survey of users 122(5) Sea ice information for navigation support 127(6) Role of satellite earth observation (EO) data 133(4) Operational sea ice services in other Arctic countries 137(12) Introduction 137(2) The International Ice Patrol 139(1) The U.S. National Ice Center 139(1) The Canadian Ice Service 140(3) The Danish Ice Service for Greenland waters 143(1) The Icelandic Ice Service 143(2) The Norwegian Ice Service for Arctic waters 145(1) Other Arctic ice monitoring services 145(4) Satellite remote sensing of sea ice 149(104) Optical and infrared imaging 149(22) Satellites and sensors 149(2) Processing of optical satellite images 151(5) Interpretation of sea ice types and features 156(8) Retrieval of sea ice thickness from infrared images 164(7) Radar imaging 171(20) Imaging radar systems 173(5) Signal calibration, corrections and adjustment 178(4) Radar backscatter from sea ice 182(9) Interpretation of sea ice parameters in SAR images 191(29) Ice development 192(9) Forms of fast ice 201(1) Forms of floating ice 202(1) Ice edge 202(7) Openings in the sea ice 209(3) Ice surface deformations 212(4) Icebergs 216(4) Sea ice retrieval algorithms for SAR 220(23) Sea ice classification 221(12) Sea ice concentration 233(6) Sea ice motion 239(4) Ice chart composition at AARI 243(10) Generation of ice charts from optical images 244(2) Generation of ice charts from SAR images 246(7) Sea ice conditions observed from satellite remote-sensing data 253(70) Western part of the Northern Sea Route 253(27) Ice edge position 254(3) Ice massifs 257(7) Fast ice distribution 264(6) Flaw polynyas 270(4) Fractures in the sea ice 274(6) Eastern part of the Northern Sea Route 280(20) Ice edge position 281(2) Ice massifs 283(3) Ice drift variability based on remote-sensing observations 286(4) Fast ice distribution 290(7) Flaw polynyas 297(3) SAR studies of Sea Ice conditions 300(23) Fast ice 301(5) Coastal polynyas 306(4) Ice drift in the Laptev Sea 310(13) Application of SAR for ice navigation in the Northern Sea Route 323(74) Use of SAR images during expeditions---pre-Envisat 323(35) The first SAR ice routing experiment with L'Astrolabe in 1991 325(7) Voyages in the period 1993/1994 332(11) The Kandalaksha voyage from Japan to Norway 343(3) The Icewatch expedition in winter 1996 346(1) First use of Radarsat on Sovetsky Soyuz during summer 1997 347(3) The Ice Routes and ARCDEV expeditions in 1998 350(8) Envisat ASAR period from 2003 358(10) Envisat demonstration in summer 2003 358(1) Winter-spring 2004 359(6) Envisat demonstrations, winter--spring 2005 365(3) Use of SAR data onboard icebreakers 368(5) Processing of SAR images and transmission to icebreakers 368(3) Use of SAR data onboard icebreakers for route selection 371(2) Use of optical images onboard icebreakers 373(4) Ice routing and assessment of satellite images 377(4) Future development of sea ice monitoring 381(16) Prospective satellite systems 381(5) Use of airborne and in situ systems 386(6) Combined use of different remote-sensing data 392(5) Climatic variability of sea ice in the Arctic 397(26) Long-term variability of sea ice in the Eurasian Arctic 398(11) Sea ice data 398(1) Linear trends in sea ice extent 399(4) Quasi-periodic variability of sea ice extent 403(4) Causes of quasi-periodic fluctuations in ice extent 407(2) Recent Arctic sea ice variability from satellite data 409(9) Arctic sea ice concentration, area and extent, 1978--present 409(3) Thick multi-year ice area 412(6) 21st century sea ice scenarios: statistical modeling 418(2) 21st century sea ice scenarios: numerical modeling 420(3) Numerical model predictions 420(1) Climate and its implications for the Northern Sea Route 421(2) Afterword 423(4) Glossary of sea ice terms 427(8) References 435(30) Index 465