Support the Arctic Sea Ice Forum and Blog

Author Topic: Glossary ... for newbies and others  (Read 160186 times)

DungeonMaster

  • Administrator
  • Frazil ice
  • Posts: 152
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 18
  • Likes Given: 3
Glossary ... for newbies and others
« on: March 23, 2013, 04:49:39 PM »
I realized that it may be difficult for our new readers to understand most of abbreviations used here. So I suggest making a glossary !

For more terms you can refer to NSIDC's Glossary. Or peruse the Global Cryosphere Watch Glossary (4141 entries from 26 sources; over 2200 are unique).

Please add terms and definitions below, I'll try to compile them in this first message (except the jokes). Please also provide links when you can.

An other Glossary is available for Antarctic here

AABW - Antarctic Bottom Water

ABW - Arctic Bottom Water

AIS - Antarctic Ice Sheet

AMO - Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

AMOC - Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

AMSR - Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer

AO - Arctic Oscillation

ASI - Arctic Sea Ice - all the Ice floating in the Arctic Seas

ASIB - Arctic Sea Ice Blog

ASIF - Arctic Sea Ice Forum

ASIG - Arctic Sea Ice Graphs page

Atlantic Front - Region where ice from the CAB melts in water coming from the Atlantic; located north of Svalbard in most recent years

AW - Atlantic Water, a deeper layer of water in the Arctic Ocean

AWI - Alfred Wegener Institute, an important research center in Germany

AWP - Albedo-Warming Potential, product of approximate albedo and insolation (ignoring clouds) in a specific region or the Arctic overall

Beaufort Gyre - A loosely defined circular pattern of ice movement from the Beaufort Sea towards the Chukchi, ESS, CAB and ultimately back to Beaufort; mostly wind driven and as such, not a true gyre; served as nursery for MYI in the past

BOE - Blue Ocean Event, a situation of an ice-free Arctic; usually defined as less than 1 million km2 of SIE, but can also mean zero SIE

BS - Bering Strait (or when someone is talking nonsense) (or Blog Science)

CAA - Canadian Arctic Archipelago - Canadian islands in the North of America: Ellesmere, Victoria, Baffin and many others, except Greenland; CAA main waterways include the Parry Channel (Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, Viscount Melville Sound, McClure Strait), Amundsen Gulf, Peel Sound, PGAS, Peary Channel, McClintock Channel and Gulf of Boothia

CAB - Central Arctic Basin, the central part of the Arctic Ocean, bordering the CAA, Beaufort, Chukchi, East Siberian, Laptev, Kara, Barents and Greenland seas; has several definitions of borders, mainly a smaller CAB (NSIDC/MASIE maps) or larger CAB (CT/Wipneus maps) versions, depending on demarcations with the other seas; includes the Lincoln Sea and the Wandel Sea

CAPIE - Cryosphere Today Area Per IJIS Extent (crude melt pond and compactness measure)

CB - Century Break, a drop of more than 100K (one hundred thousand) km2 in sea ice area or extent

CDW - Circumpolar Deep Water, a relatively warm Antarctic water mass that has been melting ice shelves

CIS - Canadian Ice Service

CONUS - Continental (or contiguous, or conterminous) U.S., meaning the 48 states, not including Alaska

CR - Climate Reanalyzer, a website providing detailed weather forecast maps

CT - Cryosphere Today, a popular but now-defunct website

DJF - December January February - winter (Meteorological calendar, northern hemisphere)

DLR - Downwelling Longwave (infra-red) Radiation

DMI - Danish Meteorological Institute

DMI +80N T - Daily mean temperatures for the Arctic north of the 80th parallel; averaged by latitude weighting instead of by area weighting, thus highly biased towards the NP

DRA - Data Release Area, the previously top secret US Navy submarine data showing measured thickness of sea ice; released to scientists in 1992 by then VP of the US Al Gore

DTC - Digital Temperature (or Thermistor) Chain, in the context of ice mass balance buoys

DTR - Diurnal Temperature Range - the difference between daily max and min temperatures

EAIS - East Antarctic Ice Sheet, the larger and more stable part of the AIS

ECMWF (AKA the Euro) - European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, a leading global weather model

ECS - Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity, steady state change in global temps resulting from a doubling of atmospheric CO2

EEI - Earth Energy Imbalance, the difference between the amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth and the amount of energy the planet radiates to space as heat

ENSO - El Nino Southern Oscillation

EPO - Eastern Pacific Oscillation

ESAS - East Siberian Arctic Shelf, a huge continental shelf of shallow depth in the Arctic

ESS - East Siberian Sea

FDD - Freezing Degree Days, sum of temps in C below freezing, provides integrated intensity of cold

FJL - Franz Josef Land, a group of islands to the east of Svalbard

FRIS - Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, in the Weddel Sea, Atlantic part of WAIS (Filchner eastern, Ronne western), both having gently sloping submarine outlets

FYI - First-Year Ice

GAC -  Great Arctic Cyclone, a large summer storm in the Arctic ocean with significant effects on the ASI, occurred in 2012 and 2016

GAAC - Great Arctic Anti-Cyclone (result of persistent high pressure), a large and persistent summer weather feature causing clear skies and anti-cyclonic winds, occurred in 2020

GCM - General Circulation Model, or Global Climate Model, the sort of model used to make IPCC temperature projections

GFS - Global Forecast System (US weather forecast model)

gice - One of the PIOMAS output files, containing the distribution of thicknesses in each grid cell

GIS - Greenland Ice Sheet

HFO - Heavy Fuel Oil

High Arctic - "hard to melt" arctic seas, including the CAB, CAA, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, ESS, Laptev Sea, Kara Sea

hPa - hectoPascal, a unit of pressure; 1000 hPa is 1 Bar; 1013.25 hPa is 1 Atmosphere; 850 hPa is ~1.5km above sea level

HYCOM - Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model, a US Navy global ocean model including ice concentration and thickness

ICESat - Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite, the precursor to CryoSat 2, used to validate PIOMAS

IJIS - IARC-JAXA Information System run by the International Arctic Research Center (IARC), University of Alaska, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

IMB - Ice Mass Balance buoy

IS - Ice stream, Isstrom in Danish

JAXA - Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency

JIS, JH - Jakobshavn Isbrae (or Ice Glacier)

JJA - June July August - summer (Meteorological calendar, northern hemisphere)

LFO - Light fuel oil

MAM - March April May - spring (Meteorological calendar, northern hemisphere)

MIZ - Marginal Ice Zone

MSLP - Mean Sea Level Pressure

MYI - Multi-Year Ice

NAO - North Atlantic Oscillation

NAVGEM -  Navy Global Environmental Model

NEW -  Northeast Water Polynya

NH - Northern Hemisphere

NEGIS - North-East Greenland Ice Stream

NOW - North Water Polynya, aka North Water Polynya, the largest Arctic polynya, between Greenland and Canada in northern Baffin Bay

NP - North Pole

NSR - Northern Sea Route

NWP - North West Passage

OLR - Outgoing Longwave (infra-red) Radiation

OMG - Oceans are Melting Greenland, a 5-year NASA mission to understand the role of the ocean in melting Greenland’s glaciers

OSISAF - Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility

OWFE - Open Water Formation Efficiency, a measure of the melt season thinning that leads to a percentage of open water in the Arctic ocean

PAC -  Persistent Arctic Cyclone

PDO - Pacific Decadal Oscillation

Peripheral Seas - "easy to melt" Arctic seas - Sea of Okhotsk, Bering Sea, Hudson Bay, Baffin  Bay, Gulf of St. Lawernce, Greenland Sea, Barents Sea

PGAS - Prince Gustav Adolf Sea, in the CAA bordering the CAB

PICT - PIOMAS volume per Cryosphere Today area (crude average thickness measure)

PIG - Pine Island Glacier, blocking one specific steep and deep outlet of WAIS below sea level; the other sensitive outlet nearby is Thwaites glacier

PIJAMAS - PIOMAS volume per JAXA sea ice extent (crude average thickness measure)

PIOMAS - Pan Arctic Ice Ocean Modelling and Assimilation System

PNA - Pacific North American pattern

Polynya - a region of year-round open water surrounded by sea ice

PSC - Polar Science Center, University of Washington (PIOMAS)

PV - Polar Vortex

QBO - Quasi Biennial Oscillation

QEI - Queen Elizabeth Islands, the northernmost cluster of islands in the CAA: Ellesmere Island, Sverdrup Islands, Parry Islands

RILE - Rapid Ice Loss Event, an event where area or extent shows marked drops faster than the long term trend, these can take years to play out in the models and rarely end with a totally ice free Arctic

RIS - Ross Ice Shelf, Pacific part of WAIS (with at least 3 gently sloping submarine outlets)

SAT - Surface Air Temperature

SFW - Stratospheric Final Warming

SH - Southern Hemisphere

SIA - Sea Ice Area, Sea Ice Concentration (SIC) of a grid cell multiplied by its size, summed over a region of interest or over the whole NH

SIC - Sea Ice Concentration, a physical characteristic of regions covered with sea ice, usually measured by passive microwave satellite, provides a measure of how much of a given region is covered by water rather than fully by ice; water can be in the form of polynyas, leads or surface meltwater

SIE - Sea Ice Extent, a measure of which grid cells contain significant amounts of sea ice, summed over regions of interest or the whole NH; historically the main measure of how much sea ice there is, given that its measurement is quite reliable; the usual cutoff is >15% SIC

SIMB - Seasonal Ice Mass Balance buoy

SIT - Sea Ice Thickness, a most important physical characteristic of sea ice; notoriously difficult to measure remotely, with various algorithms suffering from a number of issues; also estimated by models, suffering from a number of issues as well; measured locally by buoys and submarines

SIV - Sea Ice Volume, a measure of how much sea ice there is, product of SIT with SIA

SLP - Sea Level Pressure

SMB - Surface Mass Balance

SMOS - Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity, ESA satellite

SOI - Southern Oscillation Index

SON - September October November - autumn (Meteorological calendar, northern hemisphere)

SoO - Sea of Okhotsk

SST - Sea Surface Temperature

SSTa - Sea Surface Temperature anomaly

SSW - Sudden Stratospheric Warming

SW - ShortWave radiation - sunlight otherwise known as insolation

SWE - Snow Water Equivalent

SWT - SouthWestern Tributary, an arm of West Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier that connects to the PIG and affects its flow

TDD - Thawing Degree Days, sum of temps in C above freezing, provides integrated intensity of warmth

THC - Thermohaline Circulation

TPD- TransPolar Drift, a pattern of ice movement in the Arctic Ocean from Siberia across the North Pole and towards the Fram Strait; speed and direction vary

TPV - Tropopause Polar Vortex

TPW - Total Precipitable Water

UKMO - United Kingdom Meteorological Office

WAA - Warm Air Advection

WACC - Warm Arctic, Cold Continents

WAIS - The whole West Antarctic Ice Sheet

WIPD - Whole Ice Pack Detachment

ZI, ZIS - Zachariae Isstrom (or Ice Stream)
« Last Edit: October 16, 2023, 08:29:20 AM by oren »
This forum helps me to feel less uncomfortable about "doing something" about the melting Arctic and the warming world.

Neven

  • Administrator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9470
    • View Profile
    • Arctic Sea Ice Blog
  • Liked: 1333
  • Likes Given: 617
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2013, 09:52:11 PM »
I set it to sticky.  :)

Here are a few:

SIC - sea ice concentration

SIE - sea ice extent

SIA - sea ice area

SoO - Sea of Okhotsk

ESS - East Siberian Sea

CT - Cryosphere Today

CAPIE - Cryosphere Today area per IJIS extent (crude melt pond and compactness measure)

PICT - PIOMAS volume per Cryosphere Today area (crude average thickness measure)

AW - Atlantic water

BS - Bering Strait (or when someone is talking nonsense)

ASIB - Arctic Sea Ice Blog

ASIF - Arctic Sea Ice Forum

ASIG - Arctic Sea Ice Graphs page
The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

E. Smith

Pmt111500

  • Guest
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2013, 03:56:32 AM »
The Antarctica Main Glaciers (or Ice Streams)

*FRIS - Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, Atlantic part of WAIS (Filchner the eastern outlet, Ronne the western by the peninsula (both having gently sloping submarine outlets)
*RIS - Ross Ice Shelf, Pacific part of WAIS (with at least 3 gently sloping submarine outlets)

The 'backdoors'(aka 'weak underbelly') to both of them (There's a gap in the Antarctic Mountains) are:
*PIG - Pine Island Glacier, Blocking one specific steep and deep outlet of WAIS below sea level, and the other sensitive outlet nearby is
*Thwaites glacier. These are also the most northern outlets of  the

*WAIS - The whole West Antarctic Ice Sheet

for 'completeness' sake...
*EAIS - East Antarctic Ice Sheet with two largest outlets
*Mertz Glacier (that shed the C-28 iceberg just 2010) and
*Lambert Glacier (to
*Amery Ice Shelf towards Indian Ocean)
and numerous minor ones (most sit firmly on rock.)

ChrisReynolds

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1764
    • View Profile
    • Dosbat
  • Liked: 20
  • Likes Given: 9
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2013, 08:02:16 AM »
Both of these two are from papers - so unless you want me to link to papers I can't provide a general info link.

RILE - Rapid Ice Loss Event. An event where area or extent shows marked drops faster than the long term trend, these can take years to play out in the models and rarely end with a totally ice free Arctic.
OWFE - Open Water Formation Efficiency. A measure of the melt season thinning that leads to a percentage of open water in the Arctic ocean.

PIOMAS - Pan Arctic Ice Ocean Modelling and Assimilation System.
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/wordpress/research/projects/projections-of-an-ice-diminished-arctic-ocean/

ICESat - Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite. The precursor to CryoSat 2, used to validate PIOMAS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICESat

DRA - Data release area, the previously top secret US Navy submarine data showing measured thickness of sea ice. Release to scientists in 1992 by then Vice President of the US Al Gore.
http://nsidc.org/scicex/history.html

GCM - General Circulation Model, or Global Climate Model. The sort of model used to make IPCC temperature projections.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_circulation_model


Seasons:
Meteorological calendar, northern hemisphere.
DJF - December January February - winter.
MAM - March April May - spring.
JJA - June July August - summer
SON - September October November - autumn.

NH - Northern Hemisphere.
SH - Southern Hemisphere.

FUBAR - the state of the arctic ice pack in recent years.  ;)

PS - there was a map of the Arctic people were recommending. Perhaps it would be an idea to include resources like that here. Or maybe we need a 'backgrounder' sticky post for newbies.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2013, 09:13:11 PM by ChrisReynolds »

ChrisReynolds

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1764
    • View Profile
    • Dosbat
  • Liked: 20
  • Likes Given: 9
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2013, 08:23:59 AM »
Atmospheric and Ocean Modes.

AO - Arctic Oscillation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_oscillation

NAO - North Atlantic Oscillation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_oscillation

ENSO - El Nino Southern Oscillation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Oscillation_Index

PDO - Pacific Decadal Oscillation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_decadal_oscillation

PNA - Pacific North American pattern
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific%E2%80%93North_American_teleconnection_pattern

QBO - Quasi Biennial Oscillation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasi_biennial_oscillation

AMO - Atlantic Multi Decadal Oscillation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_multidecadal_oscillation

some others

DTR - Diurnal Temperature Range - the difference between daily max and min temperatures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diurnal_temperature_range

OLR - Outgoing Longwave (infra-red) Radiation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outgoing_longwave_radiation

DLR - Downwelling Longwave (infra-red) Radiation

SW - ShortWave radiation - sunlight otherwise known as insolation.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2013, 08:54:45 PM by ChrisReynolds »

ivica

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1475
  • Kelele
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 99
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2013, 08:50:29 AM »
FYI - First year ice
MYI - Multy year ice

(Fast Ice, Nilas... covered by  NSIDC's Glossary)

IS - Ice stream
JIS - Jakobshavn ice stream
ZIS - Zacharian ice stream
NEGIS - North-east Greenland ice stream

KISS - Keep it simple, stupid   :-)
« Last Edit: March 24, 2013, 09:19:59 AM by ivica »

Jim Williams

  • Frazil ice
  • Posts: 398
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2013, 11:00:25 AM »
FUBAR - the state of the arctic ice pack in recent years.  ;)

Technically, that is: Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.  The Arctic Ice Pack is merely an example.

DungeonMaster

  • Administrator
  • Frazil ice
  • Posts: 152
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 18
  • Likes Given: 3
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2013, 10:52:34 PM »
OK, first set of compilation done (jokes apart).

Please add links when you can...

I'd also love to have clear and simple graphs about :
- AO and AMO,
- extent and area,
If anyone can provide some images or links ? Perhaps on Wikipedia ?

Ivica, what is ZIS ?? Never read about this...
This forum helps me to feel less uncomfortable about "doing something" about the melting Arctic and the warming world.

ChrisReynolds

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1764
    • View Profile
    • Dosbat
  • Liked: 20
  • Likes Given: 9
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2013, 06:32:50 PM »
I've a long weekend coming up, will add links then.

ivica

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1475
  • Kelele
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 99
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2013, 07:05:00 PM »
...Ivica, what is ZIS ?? Never read about this...

ZIS is in article "Zachariæ Isstrøm Further Retreat" with link given by Jim Hunt here:
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,42.msg307.html#msg307

JMP

  • Frazil ice
  • Posts: 114
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 19
  • Likes Given: 62
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #10 on: March 28, 2013, 11:02:05 AM »
Many thanks! to Nevin and everyone! 
Glossary = Great idea!

Just now needed to look up:
SST  = Sea Surface Temperature
 

Stumbled upon this list: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/General/mhdj_acronyms3.html 
Thought it might be a help.  :) 

-John
« Last Edit: April 01, 2013, 06:06:54 AM by JMP »

Jim Pettit

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1175
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 41
  • Likes Given: 11
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #11 on: March 28, 2013, 03:30:33 PM »
Stumbled upon this list: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/General/mhdj_acronyms3.html 
Thought it might be a help.  :) 
I'll give them props for these two:
MERMAid:   Metadata Enterprise Resource Management Aid
SeaBASS:   SeaWiFS Bio-optical Archive and Storage System

...but:
SANTA CLAuS: Studies in ANTarcticA: Coupled Linkages Among micro(u)organismS

Seriously?  :)

Well, despite the obvious stretches, it's a great resource, anyway...

frankendoodle

  • Frazil ice
  • Posts: 110
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2013, 07:53:52 PM »
Common chemical abbr.

CO2 = Carbon Dioxide

CH4 = Methane

SO2 = Sulfur Dioxide

Methane Clathrate =  Methane Yydrate, Hydromethane, methane ice, fire ice, natural gas hydrate, or gas hydrate. A solid clathrate compound (more specifically, a clathrate hydrate) in which a large amount of methane is trapped within a crystal structure of water, forming a solid similar to ice (CH4•5.75H2O)

Common Mass/Volume abbr.

ppm = parts per million (mass/molar fraction)

mkm2 = one million square kilometers

Mt = Megatonne = one million metric tonnes (unit of mass) = MMT (million metric tonnes)

Gt = Gigatonne = one billion metric tonnes (unit of mass) i.e. 24.5 GtCO2 (twenty four billion, five-hundered million tonnes of carbon dioxide)

km3 = one cubic kilometer (unit of volume)

1 km3 of water = 1 kGt of water
1.0 km3 of ice = 0.90 Gt

Common Weather abbr.

hPa = 100 Pascals (unit of pressure) = 100 N/m2 (100 Newtons per square meter) Normal pressure usually borders around 1000 hPa

kPa = 1000 Pascals

Bar = 100,000 Pa or 1000 hPa or 100 kPa

millibar = Mbar = 0.001 of a Bar 


Rick Aster

  • New ice
  • Posts: 71
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1
  • Likes Given: 1
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2013, 01:17:06 AM »
A couple of weather terms:

SLP - sea level pressure
SSW - sudden stratospheric warming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_stratospheric_warming

And a link for hPa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_%28unit%29

lanevn

  • New ice
  • Posts: 91
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #14 on: May 04, 2013, 12:54:16 PM »
Anyone know minimum size of polynya to be excluded from SIE number?

PhilGChapman

  • New ice
  • Posts: 12
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #15 on: June 11, 2013, 01:04:07 AM »
CAB - Central Arctic Basin

Tor Bejnar

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 4606
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 879
  • Likes Given: 826
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #16 on: July 22, 2013, 12:33:54 AM »
Arctic maps are referenced in the ASIF "Background » Arctic Maps" thread:  http://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,417.0.html  edit: other maps are available on the Arctic Sea Ice Graphs (ASIG) site linked at the top of this page.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2015, 07:03:15 PM by Tor Bejnar »
Arctic ice is healthy for children and other living things because "we cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice"

Rick Aster

  • New ice
  • Posts: 71
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1
  • Likes Given: 1
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #17 on: May 19, 2015, 04:14:49 PM »
albedo: the reflectivity of a surface, measured as the ratio of reflected light to incident light, with 0 indicating perfect absorption and 1 indicating perfect reflection. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo

Useful reference values:

.04 charcoal
.50-.70 sea ice
.80-.90 fresh snow

Peter Ellis

  • Grease ice
  • Posts: 619
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 33
  • Likes Given: 14
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #18 on: May 19, 2015, 04:40:27 PM »
Anyone know minimum size of polynya to be excluded from SIE number?
It doesn't work like that. 

For SIE, the sensor looks at a given pixel of ice and measures the percentage of ice within that pixel.  If it's over 15%, then it counts as ice, and if it's below 15% it counts as open water.

So in theory, you could have  a pixel that's 15.00001% covered in ice, and there happens to be a 100 metre square polynya within the ice-covered part, which would push it down below the threshold and thus the whole pixel would now be counted as water.

Alternatively, you could have a long thin polynya (say a crack that's 1km wide and 50km long) that stretches across multiple pixels but doesn't bring any of them below the 15% threshold, in which case it would be entirely missed by the SIE measure.

Sea ice area weights each pixel by the percentage coverage, and so will in theory pick up polynyas of any size, no matter how big or small - however that measure is easily confused by melt ponds.

chalambar

  • New ice
  • Posts: 3
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 61
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #19 on: July 10, 2015, 05:12:33 AM »
What is meant by the term, "export"?

Neven

  • Administrator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9470
    • View Profile
    • Arctic Sea Ice Blog
  • Liked: 1333
  • Likes Given: 617
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #20 on: July 10, 2015, 11:35:29 AM »
Hi chalambar, and welcome.

Export is transport of ice floes out of the Arctic Ocean towards the Atlantic Ocean through Fram Strait (between Greenland and Svalbard) and Victoria Channel (between Svalbard and Franz Josef Land) where waters are warmer and the ice melts completely.

There can also be some export through Nares Strait towards Baffin Bay, or through the channels and straits of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, but melting out is not guaranteed.
The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

E. Smith

chalambar

  • New ice
  • Posts: 3
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 61
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #21 on: July 10, 2015, 03:25:00 PM »
Thank you, Neven.

Nick_Naylor

  • Frazil ice
  • Posts: 291
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #22 on: July 14, 2015, 06:11:37 PM »
I hope this is the right locations, as this is not exactly a glossary item, but here is a very nice primer on sea ice formation and behavior:

https://notendur.hi.is/thorstur/teaching/glac/sea_ice.pdf

Neven

  • Administrator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9470
    • View Profile
    • Arctic Sea Ice Blog
  • Liked: 1333
  • Likes Given: 617
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #23 on: July 15, 2015, 06:58:55 PM »
Neven,

I just wanted to the time zone displayed in this forum.

Sourabh, if you go to Profile->Summary->Modify Profile->Look and Layout, you'll see the time that is displayed for this forum (it's CET) and offset it to display your time zone.

Next time ask under The Forum in the Off-topic Category, please.
The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

E. Smith

Sourabh

  • New ice
  • Posts: 58
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2
  • Likes Given: 1
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #24 on: July 15, 2015, 07:31:49 PM »
Okie dokie. Thanks

Tor Bejnar

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 4606
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 879
  • Likes Given: 826
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #25 on: July 20, 2015, 05:29:05 PM »
What does "Charctic" mean?  As in "Charctic SIE loss today is 1.63 million Km^2"
and http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/

There are some other funny jargon words used on this blog.  Sure wish folks who use them would define them here!
Arctic ice is healthy for children and other living things because "we cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice"

Peter Ellis

  • Grease ice
  • Posts: 619
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 33
  • Likes Given: 14
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #26 on: July 20, 2015, 06:10:50 PM »
It doesn't mean anything special, it's just a title for one particular graph produced by the NSIDC (which you linked).  It simply stands for CHart of the ARCTIC.

Tor Bejnar

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 4606
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 879
  • Likes Given: 826
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #27 on: July 20, 2015, 06:25:53 PM »
Thanks.  I thought that might be the case, but I couldn't find a definition anywhere (even on NSIDC pages).
Arctic ice is healthy for children and other living things because "we cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice"

SCYetti

  • New ice
  • Posts: 34
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #28 on: February 23, 2016, 03:08:19 PM »
glos·sa·ry
An alphabetical list of terms or words found in or relating to a specific subject, text, or dialect, with explanations; a brief dictionary.

RoxTheGeologist

  • Grease ice
  • Posts: 625
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 188
  • Likes Given: 149
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #29 on: April 06, 2016, 08:40:28 PM »

Please can you add a definition for "Century Break"?

Okay. Yes. I am a noob and my google skills all seem to come full circle.

Neven

  • Administrator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9470
    • View Profile
    • Arctic Sea Ice Blog
  • Liked: 1333
  • Likes Given: 617
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #30 on: April 07, 2016, 09:59:57 AM »
Welcome, Rox. I've added the definition and here's a link to the provenance of the term.
The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

E. Smith

RoxTheGeologist

  • Grease ice
  • Posts: 625
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 188
  • Likes Given: 149
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #31 on: April 09, 2016, 11:19:36 PM »
Thanks Neven! It did have me snookered.

andy_t_roo

  • New ice
  • Posts: 61
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #32 on: April 10, 2016, 02:14:03 PM »
a low resolution labeled picture showing which areas of the arctic are refereed to by each of the area graphs would be nice

as eg : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barents_Sea doesn't list actually what area is talked about, but we're quite happy to list the amount of ice in it at https://sites.google.com/site/arcticseaicegraphs/regional

perhaps something like a labeled version of the following?



Meirion

  • New ice
  • Posts: 59
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #33 on: April 10, 2016, 03:54:21 PM »
Does this help?

Neven

  • Administrator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9470
    • View Profile
    • Arctic Sea Ice Blog
  • Liked: 1333
  • Likes Given: 617
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #34 on: April 10, 2016, 06:34:43 PM »
a low resolution labeled picture showing which areas of the arctic are refereed to by each of the area graphs would be nice

as eg : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barents_Sea doesn't list actually what area is talked about, but we're quite happy to list the amount of ice in it at https://sites.google.com/site/arcticseaicegraphs/regional

perhaps something like a labeled version of the following?

I've been wanting/planning to do this for ages, but somehow never did. I'll make a labelled map and add it to the Regional Graphs page. Thanks for reminding me, Andy.
The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

E. Smith

Wipneus

  • Citizen scientist
  • Young ice
  • Posts: 4220
    • View Profile
    • Arctische Pinguin
  • Liked: 1025
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #35 on: April 10, 2016, 07:07:37 PM »
For my work on regional area and extent I needed a name for ice that is not in those 14 well-known regions. Instead of lumping them as  "other", I defined a few more regions (inspired by NSIDC's MASIE).

Extra regions are:

pacf: Open Pacific Ocean     
japn: Japanese/Yellow Sea       
alsk: Gulf of Alaska             
atln: Open Atlantic Ocean     
main: Gulf of Maine             
balt: Baltic Sea                 
lake: Lakes

The lakes should have been defined anyway as a separate domain anyway, IMO.

Neven

  • Administrator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9470
    • View Profile
    • Arctic Sea Ice Blog
  • Liked: 1333
  • Likes Given: 617
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #36 on: April 12, 2016, 12:11:31 AM »
I've been wanting/planning to do this for ages, but somehow never did. I'll make a labelled map and add it to the Regional Graphs page. Thanks for reminding me, Andy.

Map is added to the Regional Graphs page:



The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

E. Smith

iamlsd

  • New ice
  • Posts: 25
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 6
  • Likes Given: 12
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #37 on: April 12, 2016, 04:38:09 AM »
Yah this map is great - I finally know where and what people are talking about - at least a little better anyway. Thanks very much :)

oren

  • Moderator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9805
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 3584
  • Likes Given: 3922
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #38 on: April 15, 2016, 12:09:05 PM »
And add to that the acronyms that had me baffled in the beginning:
ESS = East Siberian Sea
CAA = Canadaian Archipelago
CAB = Central Arctic basin

Neven

  • Administrator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9470
    • View Profile
    • Arctic Sea Ice Blog
  • Liked: 1333
  • Likes Given: 617
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #39 on: April 15, 2016, 04:35:35 PM »
And add to that the acronyms that had me baffled in the beginning:
ESS = East Siberian Sea
CAA = Canadaian Archipelago
CAB = Central Arctic basin

I've added CAB. The other two were already in there.
The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

E. Smith

Tor Bejnar

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 4606
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 879
  • Likes Given: 826
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #40 on: April 15, 2016, 05:37:20 PM »
CAA is the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, for those interested in the detail.

And add to that the acronyms that had me baffled in the beginning:
ESS = East Siberian Sea
CAA = Canadaian Archipelago
CAB = Central Arctic basin
Arctic ice is healthy for children and other living things because "we cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice"

Flocke

  • New ice
  • Posts: 20
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1
  • Likes Given: 1
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #41 on: April 16, 2016, 11:01:27 AM »

Neven

  • Administrator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9470
    • View Profile
    • Arctic Sea Ice Blog
  • Liked: 1333
  • Likes Given: 617
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #42 on: April 16, 2016, 11:58:10 AM »
FJL - Franz Josef Land
WLA - ? (http://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,1493.msg73948.html#msg73948)

Does anyone use FJL as an acronym? I've added it to the glossary nonetheless. Yes, and I saw that WLA too and had no idea what it meant.  :D
The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

E. Smith

Andreas T

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1149
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 18
  • Likes Given: 4
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #43 on: April 16, 2016, 02:21:53 PM »
Kann es sein dass Plinius vergessen hat dass hier nicht deutsch gesprochen wird? WLA koennte WarmLuftAdvection  heissen.

my guess is that WLA is the german for Warm Air Advection

Neven

  • Administrator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9470
    • View Profile
    • Arctic Sea Ice Blog
  • Liked: 1333
  • Likes Given: 617
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #44 on: April 16, 2016, 03:03:11 PM »
Das wäre schon möglich, Andreas!

From the context I figured he meant something along those lines.
The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

E. Smith

oren

  • Moderator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9805
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 3584
  • Likes Given: 3922
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #45 on: April 16, 2016, 03:27:22 PM »
CAA is the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, for those interested in the detail.

And add to that the acronyms that had me baffled in the beginning:
ESS = East Siberian Sea
CAA = Canadaian Archipelago
CAB = Central Arctic basin

Yeah sorry, thanks for the correction.

etienne

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 2045
    • View Profile
    • About energy
  • Liked: 309
  • Likes Given: 23
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #46 on: June 18, 2016, 08:34:53 AM »
Hello,

Could you also explain what is the lower line in the JAXA AMSR2 Artic Sea Ice Melt and total extend made by Wipneus ?
Thanks,

Etienne

Neven

  • Administrator
  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 9470
    • View Profile
    • Arctic Sea Ice Blog
  • Liked: 1333
  • Likes Given: 617
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #47 on: June 18, 2016, 11:06:14 AM »
Hi Etienne,

The answer is in the Home brew AMSR2 thread, and in my latest blog post on the ASIB. Basically it's a graphical display of the blue and grey on those JAXA maps that show where the surface is melting.

Cheers,

Neven
The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

E. Smith

Tor Bejnar

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 4606
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 879
  • Likes Given: 826
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #48 on: July 11, 2016, 11:28:13 PM »
Sea Ice Glossary
by C. A. Linder and associated with a 2003 expedition to the far South.

Defines about 30 types of sea ice and related terms, but doesn't include melange!
Arctic ice is healthy for children and other living things because "we cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice"

Jim Hunt

  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 6268
  • Don't Vote NatC or PopCon, Save Lives!
    • View Profile
    • The Arctic sea ice Great White Con
  • Liked: 893
  • Likes Given: 87
Re: Glossary ... for newbies and others
« Reply #49 on: July 12, 2016, 09:02:59 AM »
Weather forecasting models

GFS - Global Forecast System

ECMWF (AKA Euro) - European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

UKMO - United Kingdom Meteorological Office

NAVGEM -  Navy Global Environmental Model

See the sidebar at MeteoCiel for a few more!
"The most revolutionary thing one can do always is to proclaim loudly what is happening" - Rosa Luxemburg