The spatial variability of summer sea ice in the Amundsen Sea seen from MODIS, RADARSAT SCANSAR and LANDSAT 7 ETM+ images

The summer sea ice extent, concentration and zonation in the Southern Ocean is investigated using three new satellite sensors. They are the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the first NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite, Terra, the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) on the first Canadian Space Agency Radarsat satellite, and the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) on the NASA Landsat 7 satellite. A large number of images of these satellite sensors were acquired in February and March 2000, when a sea ice field campaign was conducted aboard the U.S. research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer. MODIS images acquired under clear sky conditions provide regional information of the spatial variability of the austral sea ice cover. Mosaics of Radarsat images present complemental information under various weather conditions and fill the MODIS information gap caused by cloudiness. ETM+ images give detailed information of the characteristics of individual ice zones, including the landfast, coastal polynyas, pack ice, and pancake and cake ice zones.