Meltpond2000 Sea Ice Campaign
Meltpond2000 was a sea ice validation program for AMSR-E funded by multiple agencies. The campaign consisted of a series of aircraft flights over melting arctic ice, using the Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR/A or PSR/C denoting analog or C band frequency, respectively), during June and July 2000. The PSR is the first airborne scanned polarimetric imaging radiometer for post-launch satellite calibration and validation of passive microwave sensors. The aircraft also carried the Scanning Low-Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SLFMR) and Infrared (IR) scanning radiometer. The objective of the campaign was to quantify the errors in proposed AMSR-E sea ice algorithms from the presence of melting ponds on the pack ice surface. Melt ponds are currently the largest source of error in determining arctic sea ice concentrations using satellite passive microwave sensors. A secondary objective of Meltpond2000 was to develop a microwave capability to discriminate between melt ponds and open sea water. Dr. Donald J. Cavalieri was the Chief Scientist for the campaign.
Figures 1 through 5 display the flight lines used during the campaign along with the location, altitude, and sensors flown for each date.
Meltpond2000 Data
Meltpond2000 Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer Sea Ice Brightness Temperatures





See Also
AMSR-E/Aqua Data
Includes AMSR-E data, tools, FAQs, news, research and more
Sea Ice Data at NSIDC
Find the most appropriate sea ice product for your research
Related Resources
NOAA's PSR Instrument Description
Information on the Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR)