Sea ice motion products from microwave imagery

Passive microwave imagery from the SSM/I 85 GHz channel has been used for several years to produce sea ice motions in the Arctic. More recently, scatterometer data has also been used to estimate ice motion. With the advent of QuikScat, near-real time scatterometer data is readily available. While scatterometry shares some of the limitations of passive microwave data, namely low resolution and problems under melt conditions, it is able to obtain more useful data through thick clouds. This study compares ice motions from both passive microwave and scatterometer data, produced in near real-time at the same temporal and spatial resolution. The results indicate that ice motion products from the two sensors compare well and that they can provide complementary information. The study demonstrates that there is potential for combined motion products that can yield more complete and more accurate ice motion fields.