SuperIce aims to develop a simulator of high-resolution sea ice thickness in the Arctic to address critical questions related to sea ice predictability at seasonal timescales and its role in the Earth’s climate system. Current satellite-based observations of sea ice thickness provide valuable data but are limited by their spatial resolution. High-resolution information is crucial …
Henna-Reetta is a researcher at Earth Observation Research unit in Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland. In her Master thesis she studied the snow conditions in Finland between 1919 and 2010 based on historical snow depth data records. She completed her PhD degree at University of Helsinki in 2022. Her doctoral thesis focused on the effect …
Snow cover is an important component of the Earth’s cryosphere and plays a significant role in regulating the Earth’s climate and hydrological cycle. Accurate estimates of snow cover are essential for a range of applications, from climate modelling to water resource management. In a recently published study, researchers develop an adaptive method for estimating snow-covered …
Surface albedo controls the absorption of sunlight and its reflection back to the atmosphere and space. The bright, highly reflecting surfaces such as seasonal snow cover and sea ice cover that expand to cover large areas during winter and shrink in coverage during summer have high impact on the surface energy balance of the Earth. …
Climate warming in the northern high latitudes is twice as strong as the global average. Increasing surface temperatures drive significant changes in the cryosphere, reducing the snow mass and extent, seasonal frost and permafrost. Changes in the cryosphere are interconnected with changes in the biosphere, e.g. carbon uptake and release by vegetation and soil. These …
Living Planet Fellowship research project carried out by Anna Kontu. Passive microwave observations at L-band (1.4 GHz) can detect soil freeze/thaw status based on the differences in the electrical properties of ice and liquid water. This method is suitable for detecting autumn freezing, but during spring thawing the liquid water in melting snow confounds the signal from …
Since the 1970s, spatial imagery has allowed to witness dramatic changes in sea ice extension and distribution. However, the sea ice thickness (SIT), which is a fundamental variable to understand and predict sea ice dynamics, is still insufficiently observed. So far, the only possibility to observe the sea ice freeboard (the sea ice emerged part …
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 …
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 …
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 …
