An Adaptive Approach to Derive Sea Ice Draft from Upward-Looking Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs), Validated by Upward-Looking Sonar (ULS) Data

Abstract

Moored upward-looking Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) can be used to observe sea ice draft. While previous studies relied on the availability of auxiliary pressure sensors to measure the instrument depth of the ADCP, we present an adaptive approach that infers instrument depth from ADCP bottom track (BT) mode measurements of error velocity and range. The ADCP-derived ice draft time series are validated with data from adjacent Upward-Looking Sonar (ULS) moorings. We demonstrate that this method can be used to obtain daily mean sea ice draft time series that, on average, are within 20% of ULS-derived draft time series. ULS and ADCP ice draft time series were observed by four moorings in the Laptev Sea and show correlations between 0.7 and 0.9. This new approach is not a substitute for high-frequency, high-precision ULS measurements of ice draft but it provides a low-cost opportunity to derive daily mean ice draft time series accessing existing ADCP data that have not been not used for that purpose to date. This method has the potential to close data gaps and extend existing ice draft time series in all ice-covered regions and supports the validation of sea ice thickness products from satellite missions such as CryoSat-2, SMOS or ENVISAT.

Keywords

• sea ice thickness
• sonar
• Laptev Sea