Welcome to a CIRFA seminar on Microwave radiometry for sea-ice monitoring, and the SIRANO project, organized by the Earth observation group at UiT and CIRFA.

WHEN: May 7, 2020 from 13:00 to 14:00
WHERE: Online Microsoft Teams meeting [link]
PRESENTATION: See the presentation on Google Slides

Welcome!

Microwave radiometry for sea-ice monitoring, and the SIRANO project.

Satellite missions with microwave radiometers (aka passive microwave sensors) have been the work-horse of sea-ice monitoring for over 40 years. They are the back-bone for the long-term monitoring of the profound changes occurring in the polar regions, including sea-ice concentration/extent/area, sea-ice type, sea-ice drift, sea-ice age, etc… Today, most weather and ocean forecast models assimilate sea-ice information derived from passive microwave sensors to improve their forecasts in the polar regions.

In this presentation, we introduce the key principles of microwave radiometers, as well as the past, present, and future satellites that carry these instruments. We also introduce the base principles for algorithms developed to measure sea-ice concentration, type, and drift as well as their limitations, and the research questions that are still open. 

Finally, we introduce the research focus of the newly started project SIRANO (Sea Ice Retrievals and data Assimilation in NOrway). SIRANO is a collaboration between MET Norway and UiT/CIRFA, funded by RCN for the period 2021-2024. You can read more about SIRANO on cryo.met.no/sirano.