Hello all,

Within the SeaWiFS L2 processing flags (32) there occurs a cloud/ice flag which is generated from a threshold reflectance value but there is also a separate sea ice flag.  What is the source data for this flag?  The only information I came across said the sea ice flag was generated by "climatologies". 

Thanks much,

Ryan

Unfortunately, I can't tell you much more than that.  The sea ice flag was added on request of Robert Frouin, to be used in the masking of the PAR product.  It's important for PAR that we can distinguish clouds from ice, and there's no radiometric scheme which can do that.   The source of the sea ice data has never been clear; the heritage has been lost.  I created the climatology file from a series of gif images covering the period Sept 1997 - Nov 1999, but I've never been able to determine how the original images were generated. 

If someone can suggest a good source for sea ice data, I'd like to hear about it.