Towards Reliable Sea Ice Drift Estimation in the Arctic Deep Learning Optical Flow on RADARSAT-2 (2510.26653v1)

Abstract: Accurate estimation of sea ice drift is critical for Arctic navigation, climate research, and operational forecasting. While optical flow, a computer vision technique for estimating pixel wise motion between consecutive images, has advanced rapidly in computer vision, its applicability to geophysical problems and to satellite SAR imagery remains underexplored. Classical optical flow methods rely on mathematical models and strong assumptions about motion, which limit their accuracy in complex scenarios. Recent deep learning based approaches have substantially improved performance and are now the standard in computer vision, motivating their application to sea ice drift estimation. We present the first large scale benchmark of 48 deep learning optical flow models on RADARSAT 2 ScanSAR sea ice imagery, evaluated with endpoint error (EPE) and Fl all metrics against GNSS tracked buoys. Several models achieve sub kilometer accuracy (EPE 6 to 8 pixels, 300 to 400 m), a small error relative to the spatial scales of sea ice motion and typical navigation requirements in the Arctic. Our results demonstrate that the models are capable of capturing consistent regional drift patterns and that recent deep learning based optical flow methods, which have substantially improved motion estimation accuracy compared to classical methods, can be effectively transferred to polar remote sensing. Optical flow produces spatially continuous drift fields, providing motion estimates for every image pixel rather than at sparse buoy locations, offering new opportunities for navigation and climate modeling.