Semidiurnal frequency of the fields of the Arctic ice rarefaction and compression from the MTVZA-GYa satellite radiometer data

Abstract

The spatiotemporal variability is considered ofthe field of ice rarefaction and compression in the Arctic due to the passage of semidiurnal tidal waves. A simplified method is developed for identification of such fields on the maps of the scattering index (SI) of ice computed from the MTVZA-GYa radiometer data. It is demonstrated that the low and high values of ice SI are ob served at tidal rarefactions and compressions, respectively. The analysis of the maps of extreme values of SI observed in overlapping semidiurnal and diurnal MTVZA-GYa measurements corroborated the existence of semidiurnal periodicity of alternating fields of the Arctic ice rarefaction and compression and revealed no variability in ice SI in the areas where tidal wave phases converge (there the convergence amplitude is minimum).