Sea Ice Downstream Services for Arctic and Antarctic Users and Stakeholders

Workpackage

Objectives and main activities

WP 1: User interaction and design of downstream services

To ensure that the products and services will respond to user requirements, a user group will be established. This group will have close interaction with the project partners, providing recommendations and feedback during development and validation of the products

WP 2: Field campaigns for collection of validation data

Field experiments will be carried out in the Arctic using icegoing vessel, helicopters, AUVs and submarine cruises to collect essential data for validation of the satellite retrievals

WP 3: Satellite data provision

Acquisition of the satellite data needed to develop the products will include SAR and optical images, radar altimeter data, passive microwave data and other data provided by the Marine Core Services

WP 4: Albedo and snow cover of sea ice

The objective is to develop improved parametrization of sea ice albedo based on optical satellite data, and provide an operational service to be used in sea ice and climate modelling

WP5: SAR analysis of sea ice and icebergs

Develop SAR-based sea ice classification order to map details of the ice cover  (leads, polynyas, ice types, deformed ice) as well as iceberg detection methods

WP6: Sea ice thickness

Develop and validate ice thickness retrievals from satellite radar altimeter (CryoSat) and passive microwave data (SMOS), and analyze ice thickness data from field surveys for validation of the satellite retrievals.

WP7: Sea ice and iceberg forecasting

(1) Provide sea ice and ice forecasts for Barents Sea area from downscaling of MyOcean services;  (2) Provide iceberg forecasting in the Antarctica by combining SAR detection and numerical ocean forecasting from MyOcean.

WP8: Data integration and validation

Integrate products from SIDARUS with MyOcean and other sea ice products, validate the SIDARUS products against field observations and present the results in a web portal.

WP9: Demonstration of downstream services

Each of the five services developed in SIDARUS will be demonstrated to users during the third year

WP10: Dissemination and exploitation

Results of the product and service development will be implemented as sustainable services after SIDARUS is completed.