ISRO's SCATSAT-1 data reveals sea ice cover in 2016 is lowest ever recorded

Image credit: ISRO/Twitter

New Delhi: Latest data from ISRO's weather monitoring satellite SCATSAT-1 has revealed changes in the sea ice cover over the Arctic and the Antarctic.

The Ku-band Scatterometer on-board SCATSAT-1 is ISRO’s second space borne scatterometer similar to OSCAT on-board Oceansat-2.

According to ISRO, the changes in the Arctic summer minimum sea ice cover were observed using SCATSAT-1 data collected on October 02, 2016, and compared it with OSCAT data collected on October 02, 2011. It was observed that sea ice cover during 2016 is lower than that observed in 2011, which was earlier lowest sea ice record.

“A time series SCATSAT-1 data clearly shows the increasing Sea ice in the Arctic and decreasing Sea ice in the Antarctic from November 2016 to January 2017,” writes ISRO on its official website.

A hybrid classification technique has been developed to classify SCATSAT-1 data for discriminating sea ice and open ocean water.

Sea ice cover is an important parameter that indicates the polar response to climate change.

Information on sea ice condition is immensely useful for maritime navigation and understanding as well as forecasting oceanic circulation and earth climate changes.

Satellite remote sensing helps to monitor Sea ice condition on a global scale.

SCATSAT-1, which is a miniature satellite, is a continuity mission for Oceansat-2 Scatterometer to provide weather forecasting, cyclone detection and tracking services to the users.

The SCATSAT-1 was launched on September 26, 2016, on board PSLV-C35 by the Indian Space Research Organisation. The data generated by this mini-satellite will be used by NASA, EUMETSAT and NOAA.