Temporal mixture analysis in monitoring Antarctic sea ice concentration variability

Temporal mixture analysis (TMA) is deduced from spectral mixture analysis (SMA). They are algebraically identical except for that TMA is applied to temporal spectra and thus can extract the temporal characteristics of the investigated features. The ice concentration is highly dynamic across the most of the Antarctic first-year ice zones with time and space. TMA has a great potential to obtain this temporal variability as an environmental baseline. In the present study, sea ice concentration data from 2003 to 2010 remotely sensed by a passive radiometer, Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer — Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), are used and seven typical endmembers are captured, representing temporally different sea ice classifications. TMA derived temporal spectra can also be utilized in change analysis relative to the baseline of Antarctic sea ice concentration, allowing it in favor of the further study of regional or global climate changes. In summary, TMA provides a new effective tool for researchers to perform the investigation about the temporal variability of polar sea ice.