Sea ice extent retrieval with HY-2A scatterometer data and its assessment

A sea ice extent retrieval algorithm over the polar area based on scatterometer data of HY-2A satellite has been established. Four parameters are used for distinguishing between sea ice and ocean with Fisher＇s linear discriminant analysis method. The method is used to generate polar sea ice extent maps of the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the full 2013-2014 from the scatterometer aboard HY-2A （HY-2A-SCAT） backscatter data. The time series of the ice mapped imagery shows ice edge evolution and indicates a similar seasonal change trend with total ice area from DMSP-F17 Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder （SSMIS） sea ice concentration data. For both hemispheres, the HY-2A-SCAT extent correlates very well with SSMIS 15% extent for the whole year period. Compared with Synthetic Aperture Radar （SAR） imagery, the HY-2A-SCAT ice extent shows good correlation with the Sentinel-1 SAR ice edge. Over some ice edge area, the difference is very evident because sea ice edges can be very dynamic and move several kilometers in a single day.