NNA: Remote Sensing of Arctic Sea Ice Using the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network

北冰洋海冰的变化具有广泛的社会和生态影响。北部航道的开通、通往沿海社区的可靠冰路以及海底资源的开采都对世界各国产生了经济影响。土著人民依赖当地海洋哺乳动物种群作为文化和营养价值的来源，然而，北极海洋哺乳动物特别容易受到30多年来一直发生的海冰覆盖减少的影响。北冰洋海冰的存在和范围也会影响海洋和大气之间的热量传递，从而影响当地和偏远地区的季节性天气模式。因此，对北极海冰的持续观测对于了解当前趋势和预测未来全球气候系统的变化至关重要。该项目将通过开发从现有空间气象监测网收集的长期数据集中提取海冰特征的新技术，为国家科学基金会的北极观测网作出贡献。超级双极光雷达网是一个国际陆基空间气象雷达网，已在北极和南极地区连续运行了30多年。这些高频(HF)雷达使用超视距(OTH)无线电波传播来探测数千公里范围内的电离层等离子体结构。作为这项技术的副产品，发射的雷达信号经常从地球S表面反射，可以作为地面后向散射回波观测到。该项目将分析SuperDARN历史和正在进行的地面后向散射数据，以提取北极海冰参数，并将与从天基微波遥感传感器获得的海冰测量结果进行比较。来自SuperDARN高频雷达观测的业务海冰数据产品将交付给国家科学基金会北极数据中心，供更广泛的北极研究界长期保存和获取。改进SuperDARN地面后向散射回波的探测和地理定位，不仅有助于今后在雷达观测中研究陆地/海洋表面特征，而且还将提高电离层等离子体对流的全球空间天气图的质量。这一建议与国家科学基金S利用现有观测技术和网络中的大数据集导航新北极的十大想法一致。该奖项由北极科学部、极地计划办公室、国际科学与工程办公室以及大气和地球空间科学部地球航天部共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Changes in Arctic sea ice have wide-ranging societal and ecological impacts. The opening of northern shipping routes, reliability of ice roads for access to coastal communities, and extraction of undersea resources have economic implications for countries around the world. Indigenous peoples depend on local marine mammal populations as a source of cultural and nutritional value, however Arctic marine mammals are particularly vulnerable to reductions in sea ice cover as have been occurring for more than 30 years. The presence and extent of Arctic sea ice can also influence the transfer of heat between the ocean and atmosphere, affecting both local and remote seasonal weather patterns. Sustained observations of Arctic sea ice are therefore crucial for understanding current trends and predicting future changes in the global climate system. This project will contribute to the National Science Foundation's Arctic Observing Network by developing new techniques for the extraction of sea ice characteristics from a long-running data set collected by an existing network of space weather monitors.The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) is an international network of ground-based space weather radars which have operated continuously in the Arctic and Antarctic regions for more than 30 years. These high-frequency (HF) radars use over-the-horizon (OTH) radio wave propagation to detect ionospheric plasma structures across ranges of several thousand kilometers. As a byproduct of this technique, the transmitted radar signals frequently reflect from the Earth?s surface and can be observed as ground backscatter echoes. This project will analyze historical and ongoing SuperDARN ground backscatter data for extraction of Arctic sea ice parameters, and comparisons will be made to sea ice measurements obtained from space-based microwave remote sensors. An operational sea ice data product derived from the SuperDARN HF radar observations will be delivered to the National Science Foundation's Arctic Data Center for long-term preservation and accessibility by the broader Arctic research community. Improvements in the detection and geolocation of SuperDARN ground backscatter echoes will not only benefit future studies of land/sea surface features in radar observations but also increase the quality of global space weather maps of ionospheric plasma convection. This proposal aligns with one of the National Science Foundation?s 10 Big Ideas for Navigating the New Arctic by leveraging a large data set from an existing observational technology and network. This award is cofunded by the Arctic Sciences section, Office of Polar Programs, the Office of International Science & Engineering and the Geospace section, Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.