A comparison of sea ice parameters computed from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and Landsat satellite imagery and from airborne passive microwave radiometry

AVHRR-derived sea ice parameters from the Bering Sea are compared with those computed from nearly coincident (within 6 hr) Landsat MSS imagery and from the Aircraft Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (AMMR) flown on the NASA DC-8 in order to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of AVHRR-mapped sea-ice concentration and ice edge. Mean ice-concentration differences between AVHRR near-infrared (channel 2) and Landsat MSS data ranged from -0.8 to 1.8 percent with a mean value of 0.5 percent; rms differences ranged from 6.8 to 17.7 percent. Mean differences were larger for AVHRR thermal infrared (channel 4) ice concentrations ranging from -2.2 to 8.4 percent with rms differences from 8.6 to 26.8 percent. Mean differences between AVHRR channel 2 concentrations and the AMMR data ranged from -19.7 to 18.9 percent, while rms values went from 17.0 to 44.8 percent.