UAV-based broadband albedo of Arctic Ocean sea ice surface during MOSAiC leg 5, Aug-Sep 2020

DOI

Broadband surface albedo over Arctic Ocean sea ice was measured using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system called Spectra during Leg 5 of the MOSAiC expedition in August–September 2020. A series of horizontal transects and vertical profiles were flown at altitudes of approximately 5 m, 10 m, and 30 m on seven separate days between August 29 and September 12. The primary goal of these measurements was to characterize the evolution of surface broadband albedo during the onset of autumn freezing and to investigate the spatial variability of albedo across the heterogeneous Arctic sea ice cover at multiple spatial scales.This dataset includes broadband downwelling and upwelling shortwave irradiance measurements recorded by upward- and downward-facing pyranometers at 5-second intervals. Both raw data and calibrated radiative flux values are provided. The pyranometers were mounted on three-axis stabilizing gimbals, which also recorded x, y, and z acceleration and inclination at 1-second intervals. Each pyranometer's temperature was logged every 5 seconds. Additionally, detailed UAV attitude and positional data were recorded by the autopilot system at 100–200 millisecond intervals. To supplement positional tracking, a secondary GPS unit mounted on the main body of the Spectra UAV offered redundant measurements of position and velocity.Data recording began when a custom measurement script was manually initiated and continued until the script was terminated or the system was powered off. Prior to each flight, instruments recorded for at least 30 minutes to allow sensor stabilization and thermal equilibration with the ambient temperature. UAV autopilot logs are available for periods when the UAV was armed.Metadata for all measurement activities, along with a description of the available data files, is provided in a dedicated Excel spreadsheet. In addition, a summary .txt file compiles information from the various data files. This summary includes indicative classifications of measurement subtypes - such as UAV hovering over approximately the same location, horizontal transect flights, stationary on ice, pre-flight preparations, or landing phases. Quality flags (/) have been added to indicate data values falling outside the physical measurement range. These flags are applied to both raw and calibrated pyranometer irradiance values, pyranometer temperatures, and broadband albedo measurements.The shortwave irradiance values in the original data files are based on sensitivity coefficients obtained during an outdoor calibration conducted prior to the expedition. In contrast, the accompanying .txt file uses updated sensitivity values derived from a more recent outdoor calibration performed after the expedition.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.974281
Related Identifier References https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.973995
Related Identifier References https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.945980
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.974281
Provenance
Creator Hannula, Henna-Reetta ORCID logo; Pirazzini, Roberta; Brus, David; Arponen, Teijo
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2025
Funding Reference Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003207 Crossref Funder ID AFMOSAiC-1_00 Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate; Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003207 Crossref Funder ID AWI_PS122_00 Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate / MOSAiC; European Space Agency https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000844 Crossref Funder ID 4000139872/22/I-DT-lr https://eo4society.esa.int/projects/uav-obasis/ UAV observations of BRDF and albedo over sea ice and snow (UAV-OBASiS); Finnish Cultural Foundation https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003125 Crossref Funder ID 00230092 UAV observations of BRDF and albedo over sea ice and snow; Horizon 2020 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007601 Crossref Funder ID 101003590 doi:10.3030/101003590 Modelling the Polar regions in a global context (PolarRES); Horizon 2020 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007601 Crossref Funder ID 727890 doi:10.3030/727890 Integrated Arctic observation system (INTAROS); Horizon 2020 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007601 Crossref Funder ID 730965 doi:10.3030/730965 Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium: A strategy for meeting the needs for marine-based research in the Arctic (ARICE); Research Council of Finland https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002341 Crossref Funder ID 364939 https://research.fi/en/results/funding/81907 Consistent representation of Antarctic and Arctic snow and sea-ice mass and energy budgets from point to model grid cell scales (IceScales)
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International; Data access is restricted (moratorium, sensitive data, license constraints); https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
OpenAccess false
Representation
Resource Type Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 503 data points
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (101.245W, 88.105S, 120.909E, 88.771N); Arctic Ocean
Temporal Coverage Begin 2020-08-29T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2020-09-12T00:00:00Z