Sea ice, especially its types, is a sensitive indicator of climate change. As the dramatic decrease of Arctic sea ice area, it is increasingly dominated by thinner and younger first-year ice (FYI) instead of multiyear ice (MYI). Several sea ice type (SIT) products have been produced with microwave satellite observations since the late 1990s. However, they differ significantly in resolution, method and the involved satellite data, resulting in various performances. It remains insufficient in detailed comparison and accuracy evaluation among the products. This paper presents key results of inter-comparison and evaluation of five SIT products (Table 1) covering the winter seasons in the Arctic Basin. The SIT products from 2000 to 2020 was inter-compared with sea ice age (SIA) product and high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. Detailed performances of the five SIT products with methods analysis can be summarized as follows: Overall, the results show that the SIT products with combined scatterometer and radiometer data, with QSCAT than ASCAT scatterometer data, and with high resolution than low resolution have overall better performances on sea ice type discrimination. In addition, their performances vary with periods and regions. Their results are the most stable and credible in the Center Arctic in mid-winter, while large variations occur in the beginning and end of winters, mainly in the Beaufort Sea (BS) and East Siberia Sea (ESS).
 

seaice,sea ice type,products comparison,multiyear ice(MYI),microwave,scatterometer and radiometer