SAR Data Center Project: Arctic MeasuresProducts & Tools - Lagrangian
The Lagrangian products contain monthly measurements of dynamic and kinematic parameters over the Arctic Ocean sea ice cover. The analysis involves laying a 10km by 10km grid over a set of RADARSAT orbits covering the sea ice cover during an initial 3-day period of a season. The grid points are then tracked over each ensuing 3-day time period throughout the season. The changes in the cells defined by the grid points are used to characterize the evolution of the ice within each cell. We produce these measurements for two seasons: 1) winter usually covers November through mid-May, and 2) summer covers mid-May into mid-August.
Ice Motion
A record of the location of each point within the initial grid as tracked on RADARSAT images over 3-day intervals. Note that a small fraction of these points may be lost during the season through advection out of the Arctic basin, loss of sea ice, or an inability to track the ice cover.For easy access, a list of products (categorized by month/seasons) can be found in the tables below. Select all of your desired products, and then click on the "Download" button to download your selection(s).
Deformation
A record of the divergence, vorticity and shear occurring within each cell. As the vertices of each cell move within a time step, the deformation properties can be calculated to characterize the response of the ice cover to stresses induced by wind and ocean currents.For easy access, a list of products (categorized by month/seasons) can be found in the tables below. Select all of your desired products, and then click on the "Download" button to download your selection(s).
Ice Age & Thickness
A record of the area, age and thickness of ice that result from cell area changes. If the area of a cell increases over time, an area of new ice is created. When the cell area decreases, the thinnest ice areas are rafted or ridged, depending on their thickness.The increase of ice thickness within all the new ice areas is modeled using air temperature data. The thickness of ridged ice areas are also grown in time.
For easy access, a list of products (categorized by month/seasons) can be found in the tables below. Select all of your desired products, and then click on the "Download" button to download your selection(s).
Backscatter Histograms
A record of the radiometric properties of the ice within each cell. A histogram of the radar brightness is kept within each cell at each time step, allowing the user to deduce multi-year ice fractions of the ice cover.
For easy access, a list of products (categorized by month/seasons) can be found in the tables below. Select all of your desired products, and then click on the "Download" button to download your selection(s).
Documents
1) Data User's Document describes the background, procedures, and content of the Lagrangian data products.
2) Product Specfication Document provides the detailed description and format of the data fields in the Lagrangian data products.
Tools
To download IDL and C routines to read the data products, click here.
Note that in earlier winter products we use a 10km resolution grid over the existing ice cover beginning sometime near the beginning of November. In later products we use a hybrid grid of 10km resolution over the multi-year ice pack and a 20km grid over the seasonal ice and began our analysis in early December so as to permit the tracking of the seasonal ice regions.
Project Details
Arctic MEaSUREs Project
Monitoring the Changing Arctic
A NASA Funded MEaSUREs Project : a follow-on to the REaSON Project
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