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ARCTIC OCEAN SEA ICE DEFORMATION FROM SAR ICE MOTION
Linear Kinematic Features

Abstract

High-resolution radar imagery of the Arctic Ocean is being acquired on a routine basis. These sequential radar observations, from RADARSAT, are transformed into estimates of ice motion, deformation, age and thickness by the RADARSAT Geophysical Processor System (RGPS). The RGPS data products provide basin-scale views of the deformation of the sea ice cover over entire seasons based on continuous sampling of Lagrangian elements on the ice cover. At any given time, the RGPS data products allow the visualization of all the kinematically active linear features over the Arctic Ocean. Nearly all deformations on the ice cover are localized along these features while the rest of the ice cover remains unaffected. We use the phrase Linear Kinematic Features (LKFs) as a general descriptor of these long, narrow features, whether or not they contains open water, new ice, nilas, young-ice, first-year ice, rafted ice, or ridged ice. Locally, they can be created by divergence, convergence, shear, or combination of these processes. The amount of open water production, ridging and the thin ice thickness distribution can be estimated at these linear features.




Linear Kinematic Feautes Available Units on the Plots

Divergence:

/day

Vorticity:

/day

Shear:

/day

x-motion:

Km/day

y-motion:

Km/day

Magnitude of motion: km/day
Sea Level Pressure: hPa (contour interval -2 hPa)

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FIRST GOV Polar Remote Sensing Group. All rights reserved.
Last updated June 28th, 2008.
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