High-resolution arctic sea ice image acquisition and mosaicking using helicopter-borne sensors

Abstract

Observing state of arctic sea ice using remote sensing techniques plays key role in understanding present state and providing information for predicting future changes. Satellite remote sensing has been applied to investigate various properties of sea ice, e.g., distribution, concentration, surface composition, topography, etc., from the capability of data acquisition over wide areas with short time intervals. To validate or calibrate the satellite remote sensing datasets or products higher resolution ground truth data acquired during field investigation is necessary. Helicopters carried onboard icebreaker for multiple purposes, not only scientific research activities but also carrying people and cargos, can be an efficient remote sensing platform for obtaining the higher resolution ground truth data of sea ice. However, continuously drifting sea ice hampers precise image mosaicking and comparing with other remote sensing datasets or products due to increased ambiguity in geolocation accuracy. This study demonstrates a practical acquisition of high-resolution helicopter-borne images over arctic sea ice using a helicopter carried onboard Korean icebreaking research vessel Araon and proposes a protocol to compensate the effect from sea ice drift to the opportunistically obtained images using a drift trajectory of sea ice. The suggested approach can be applied to the helicopters carried on board other icebreakers. The method for compensation of sea ice drift also can be used to mosaic high resolution sea ice images from unmanned aerial vehicle or other aerial photography.