Spatiotemporal Variation Analysis of Arctic Sea Ice Thickness and Volume Based on CryoSat-2 Altimetry Satellite Data

Abstract

Sea ice monitoring is helpful to the research of the Arctic channels and climate environment. Through echo signal classification, re-tracking correction, and other techniques, data from the Cryosat-2 radar altimetry satellite between 2010 and 2020 facilitated the retrieval of Arctic sea-ice thickness and volume. The study subsequently analyzed the variations in the average thickness and volume of first-year ice and multi-year ice in the Arctic sea ice over the past decade. In the past decade, the volume of sea ice in the Arctic region fluctuates slightly. The multiyear ice changed greatly in 2013, while the first-year ice shows an increased rate of both winter growth and summer ablation. The presence of uncertainties arising from the fluctuations in sea ice density values and the intricate patterns of Arctic circulation might impart subtle biases in the measurements of sea ice thickness. However, the sea ice freeboard and thickness data inverted based on the Cryosat-2 data were validated by the data obtained through the Operation Ice Bridge (OIB), and the validation results indicated that they are correspondent.