A Sea Ice Concentration Product for Operational Ice Forecasting from NOAA@NSIDC

To meet a need for greater accuracy and higher resolution in ice concentration fields that are used to initialize an operational sea ice forecast model, a new sea ice concentration product has been developed by NOAA@NSIDC. Known as MASAM2, this sea ice concentration is a blend of two other daily sea ice data products. First is ice coverage from MASIE, the Multisensor Analyzed Sea Ice Extent product, at a 4 km grid cell size. Second are ice concentrations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) at a 10 km grid cell size. MASIE and AMSR2 data are blended together to take advantage of the best features of both products. MASIE, based on U.S. National Ice Center (NIC) analyses, is more likely to be accurate in showing where ice is present than AMSR2 due to the use of multiple sensors and quality control of the data while the AMSR2 sea ice concentration product gives concentration information not available from MASIE alone. This prototype MASAM2 product currently covers only 27 months, July 2012 through mid-November 2014, but it will become a daily product if there is demand for such a product. MASAM2 was designed in partnership with a modeling group at the Oceanography Division of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and is a contribution to the Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN). The Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO) adopted the method for operational use in February 2015. To learn more about this product and to access the data, see the MASAM2: Daily 4-Km Arctic Sea Ice Concentration, 2012-2014 documentation. Data Set DOI: https://doi.org/10.7265/N5ZS2TFT