BAS generates the CMEMS SEAICE_ANT_SEAICE_L4_NRT_OBSERVATIONS_011_012 sea ice edge product. Details of this product are available in the CMEMS catalogue. It was planned that one use of this product was routine validation of lower resolution sea ice products for the Southern Ocean.
This page details the use of this CMEMS product for validation of the OSI SAF Southern Ocean sea ice classification product following a methodology established as part of the OSI SAF CDOP Visiting Scientist scheme. Current up to date validation results are presentation below and also the results for the full time series of the CMEMS product since 2011.
The results plots show the agreement between the OSISAF and CMEMS products. This correlates to the ‘agree’ parameter which indicates the percentage of pixels, which have the same water/ice classification in both the OSI SAF product and the CMEMS product.
The correlation is generally very good with monthly averages being well over 90%. Instances where the agreement is much lower are explained either by errors in classification labelling in the CMEMS product or classification of low concentration sea ice cover is classified as ice. Since the products are published in near real time, we do not correct any of these errors to avoid changes in the publication record.
The validation results are available for download as a simple CSV file providing the date and agreement values. Please contact us with any other requests about access to date and validation results.
The validation follows the method developed as part of the OSI SAF CDOP Visiting Scientist scheme, titled “Validation of the OSI SAF sea ice products in the Antarctic”, OSI SAF reference CDOP‐SG07‐VS01. The associated report is document reference: SAF/OSI/CDOP/met.no/SCI/RP/153. Please note that this report refers to the MyOcean products, which are equivalent to the current CMEMS (SEAICE_ANT_SEAICE_L4_NRT_OBSERVATIONS_011_012) products. These products are consistent and the same validation methodology is applicable.