Bayesian Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach to Segment Arctic Sea
Ice from SMOS
Abstract
Microwave radiometry at L-band is sensitive to sea ice thickness (SIT)
up to ∼ 60 cm. Current methods to infer SIT depend on ice-physical
properties and data provided by the ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean
Salinity (SMOS) mission. However, retrieval accuracy is limited due to
seasonally and regionally variable surface conditions during the
formation and melting of sea ice. In this work, Arctic sea ice is
segmented using a Bayesian unsupervised learning algorithm aiming to
recognize spatial patterns by harnessing multi-incidence angle
brightness temperature observations. The approach considers both
statistical characteristics and spatial correlations of the
observations. The temporal stability and separability of classes are
analyzed to distinguish ambiguous from well-determined regions. Model
uncertainty is quantified from class membership probabilities using
information entropy. The presented approach opens up a new scope to
improve current SIT retrieval algorithms, and can be particularly
beneficial to investigate merged satellite products.