European Polar Science Week 2020
Outcomes of the first European Polar Science event, part of a new ESA-EC joint Earth System Science initiative, aimed at fostering closer collaboration and networking across the EU and ESA Polar activities.
Tag: polar science cluster
ALBATROSS – ALtimetry for BAthymetry and TideRetrievals for the Southern Ocean, Sea ice and ice Shelves
Prime company: NOVELTIS SAS (FR)The ALBATROSS Project (ALtimetry for BAthymetry and Tide Retrievals for the Southern Ocean, Sea ice and ice Shelves) , led by NOVELTIS in collaboration with DTU, NPI and UCL, is one of the activities funded by ESA in the frame of the Polar Science Cluster, with the objective to foster collaborative research and interdisciplinary networking …
Arctic coastal sea ice thinning twice as fast than thought
Sea ice in key Arctic coastal regions is thinning at a rate of 70–100% faster than previously thought. These values, reported in a paper recently published in The Cryosphere, are derived when the sea ice thickness in the period 2002–2018 is calculated using new snow data with more realistic variability and trends. Results are outcomes …
AI4ARCTIC
Prime company: NORWEGIAN COMPUTING CENTER NORSK REGNESENTRAL (NO)The AI for the Arctic (AI4ARCTIC) project applies deep learning, in particular deep convolutional neural networks, for Earth observation applications within the cryosphere, focusing on sea ice and snow. The project trains deep-learning systems from relevant training data, and tests and demonstrates the capability of deep learning by applying it to large-scale inference of cryosphere-related …
EO4PAC – Earth Observation for Permafrost dominated Arctic Coasts
Prime company: b.geos GmbH (AT)EO4PAC project aims at the development of a roadmap for the next generation of the Arctic Coastal Dynamics database. The focus is on complementation of in situ records with satellite data across the entire Arctic.
CryoSat reveals ice loss from glaciers in Alaska and Asia
Between 2010 and 2019, the Gulf of Alaska lost 76 Gt of ice per year while High Mountain Asia lost 28 Gt of ice per year. These losses are equivalent to adding 0.21 mm and 0.05 mm to sea level rise per year, respectively. The results, based on interferometric swath processing of CryoSat-2 altimeter data, …
Alpsnow
Prime company: ENVEO – ENVIRONMENTAL EARTH OBSERVATION GMBH (AT)The AlpSnow project will develop improved products for a number of snow parameters (area extent, albedo, grain size, depth, snow water equivalent, snow melt area and wetness). A dataset covering the entire Alps for 4 years will be produced, and its usefulness will be demonstrated through three science cases and three demonstration cases related to …
AlpGlacier
Prime company: UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH (CH)The Glacier Science in the Alps project is part of the Alps Regional Initiative and is aimed at maximising the scientific return of European investments in EO specifically from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 specifically to provide first enhanced observation capacity for glaciers in the Alps beyond area to glacier velocity and end of season snow cover …
Polar+ Snow on Sea ice
Prime company: MULLARD SPACE SCIENCE LABORATORY-UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON (GB)The project aims to develop and validate different approaches to retrieve snow thickness over the sea ice; to develop a new prototype processor; and to produce and validate an experimental dataset of snow thickness over the Arctic.
Which future for altimetry?
A seminal article on the progress of satellite altimetry and its future has been published on-line in Advances in Space Research on 23 March 2021. It is authored by the International Altimetry Team, which is composed of more than 360 co-authors. In 2018, in Ponta Delgada, the Azores, Portugal, celebrations took place for 25 years …