Observation of the 2018 North Greenland polynya with a new merged optical and passive microwave sea ice concentration dataset
Abstract. Observations of sea ice concentration are available from satellites year-round and almost weather-independently using passive microwave radiometers at resolutions down to 5 km. Thermal infrared radiometers provide data with a resolution of 1 km, but only under cloud-free conditions. We use the best of the two satellite measurements and merge thermal infrared and passive microwave sea ice concentrations. This yields a merged sea ice concentration product which combines the gap-free spatial coverage of the passive microwave sea ice concentrations and the 1 km resolution of the thermal infrared sea ice concentrations. The benefit of the merged product is demonstrated by observations of a polynya which opened north of Greenland in February 2018. We find that the merged sea ice concentration product resolves leads as sea ice concentration between 60 % and 80 %. They are not resolved by the coarser passive microwave sea ice concentration product. Next, the environmental conditions during the polynya event are analysed. The polynya was caused by unusual southerly winds during which the sea ice drifted northward instead of southward as usual. The daily displacement was 50 % stronger than normal. The polynya was associated with a warm-air intrusion caused by a high-pressure system over the Eurasian Arctic. Surface air temperatures were slightly beneath 0 °C and thus more than 20 °C above the average. Two estimates of thermodynamic growth yield accumulated growth of 60 and 65 cm at the end of March. This compares well with airborne sea ice thickness measurements. 33 km3 of sea ice were produced thermodynamically.