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Abstract

On a regional scale, sea ice monitoring is important for marine transportation, fishery, harbor and offshore structures, and weather forecast. In this study, we attempt to analyze the potential of Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) images for regional-scale sea ice monitoring. GOCI images obtained from December 2011 to March 2012 were analyzed to evaluate the frequency that sea ice can be observed in the Bohai Sea and the northern Yellow Sea. In this season, the sea ice distribution varies greatly both temporally and spatially. During the approximate 100-day ice period, GOCI provided relatively cloud-free daily images over sea ice 86% in Liaodong Bay and 81% in Seohan Bay. In addition, GOCI was able to provide all eight hourly images from morning to late afternoon with clear condition, which is important for tracking ice drift, for 40 days in Liaodong Bay and 31 days in Seohan Bay. The high temporal resolution of GOCI facilitates short-period monitoring and tracking of sea ice. We also proposed a simple method to detect and delineate the sea ice area (SIA) from the GOCI images. A simple standard deviation filtering enhanced the spatial variability between the sea ice and open water and was very effective in separating SIA from sea water.

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