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

北极海冰的变化具有广泛的社会和生态影响。北方航线的开通，通往沿海社区的冰路的可靠性，以及海底资源的开采，对世界各国都有经济影响。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海冰覆盖面积减少的影响，这种情况已经持续了30多年。北极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全球气候系统的未来变化至关重要。该项目将通过开发新技术，从现有的空间气象监测网络收集的长期数据集中提取海冰特征，为美国国家科学基金会的北极观测网络做出贡献。超级双极光雷达网是一个在北极和南极地区连续运行了30多年的陆基空间气象雷达国际网络。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。作为这种技术的副产品，发射的雷达信号经常从地球反射回来。S面，可以观测到地面后向散射回波。该项目将分析历史和正在进行的SuperDARN地面后向散射数据，以提取北极海冰参数，并将与天基微波遥感器获得的海冰测量数据进行比较。由SuperDARN高频雷达观测得出的可操作海冰数据产品将交付给美国国家科学基金会的北极数据中心，以便更广泛的北极研究界进行长期保存和访问。SuperDARN地面后向散射回波探测和地理定位的改进，不仅有利于未来雷达观测中陆地/海面特征的研究，而且可以提高电离层等离子体对流全球空间天气图的质量。这一提议与美国国家科学基金会的一项？通过利用来自现有观测技术和网络的大量数据集来导航新北极的10个大想法。该奖项由北极科学部、极地项目办公室、国际科学与工程办公室以及大气与地球空间科学部共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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.