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<p>The Seasonal Ice Zone Experiment (SIZEX), conducted in January 1992, was designed as the European Space Agency's ERS-1 synthetic-aperature radar (SAR) validation experiment. The satellite was placed in a three day exact repeat orbit, with ascending and descending passes which crossed the Greenland Sea marginal ice zone. In conjunction with SAR imagery collected by the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, the research vessel Hakon Mosby recorded meteorological data on station near the ice edge. The marginal ice zone was subjected to atmospheric and oceanographic forcing during the 7-16 January period which resulted in significant changes in ice edge morphology. As intense low pressure systems propagated across the Greenland Sea, strong easterly and northerly winds dominated oceanographic forcing and created a compact ice edge which correlated with the 50% ice concentration isopleth from the SSM/I passive microwave sensor. Conversely, during periods of weak atmospheric forcing, the ice edge became diffuse and the ice edge morphology was determined by a variety of oceanic circulations. In this instance the actual ice edge position was well correlated with a 30% concentration isopleth.
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<br>Subjects: Arctic cyclones; Marginal ice zone; Morphology; SIZEX; ERS-1; SAR; Backscatter</div>
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Rutherford, Steven John</div>
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