Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen

It is now official: #WIVERN has been selected as @esa.int Earth Explorer 11 mission! ➡️ www.esa.int/Applications...
We were involved in studying how the 94 GHz radiometer and Doppler radar can be used for sea-ice observations and are therefore very happy and excited that this instrument will fly!

Four people from the working group on a roof terrace under blue sky

Greetings from Potsdam! 4 of us were attending the general assembly of the (AC)3 research project www.ac3-tr.de this week. We showed and admired posters about different topics all the way from the #Arctic ocean to high clouds and discussed our cross-cutting activities.

Regional and seasonal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice Abstract. Melt ponds on sea ice significantly modify the absorption of solar radiation by the sea ice-ocean system in the Arctic, thereby influencing the energy budget and sea ice mass balance. Conseq...

Are you interested in the regional differences of melt pond formation and evolution in the Arctic? Or did you ever wonder how these are related to the sea ice surface topography and ice types? Then check out our new paper: tc.copernicus.org/articles/19/...

Die Maritime Woche 2025 - Feiern an der Weser Bremen feiert seinen maritimen Charakter!

Attention locals: This week is maritime week in #Bremen. Saturday and Sunday you can visit the Forschungsmeile (mile of research) at the Weser river where you find us and our little sea ice experiments (for kids and grown-ups!) www.bremen.de/kultur/veran...

CONTRASTS wraps up after 2 months in the central Arctic aboard RV Polarstern: 61 days at sea, 30+ days on sea ice, terabytes of data, and 3 ice floes revisited across 3 ice regimes. Big thanks to the 43 crew supporting 57 scientists on RV Polarstern. AWI press release: www.awi.de/en/about-us/...

As the giant #Antarctic iceberg #A23a is currently breaking apart, we created a video about its dance in the water in the last year, including spinning in a Taylor column! Even though A23a is not sea ice, the microwave signature is similar and it shows up in our data! Can you spot it in the video?

Smiling Gunnar standing in fron of radiometer on pulka with Polarstern in the background

Radiometer mounted on pulka in foreground, person taking measurements and research vessel Polarstern in the background.

Radiometer mounted on pulka in front of a beautiful fresh sea ice area.

Hi! I’m ARIEL, an L-band microwave radiometer 📡, and this is my little buddy Sebastian (the pulka 🛷). Together, we traveled across 3 Arctic ice stations ❄️ to uncover the invisible (aka microwave) secrets of ever-changing summer sea ice and its thickness on the @awi.de CONTRASTS #expedition 🧊.

Can the color of melt ponds reveal the sea-ice thickness below? 🧊 And can we measure this from #space? 🛰️ On the @awi.de CONTRASTS #expedition, we’re testing this with a 200+ band hyperspectral camera and co-located ice thickness measurements for a large variety of #Arctic ponds.

two people on the sea ice installing instruments

sea ice floe with people on it with the ship in the back taken from a drone

Isabel on the ice at the North Pole in front of the ship

One of our master students, Isabel Krüll, had the great opportunity to join a cruise of Le Commandant Charcot to do some research at the North pole. They were able to do 2 ice floe landings with drone flights, ice thickness measurements & buoy deployments and even saw a polar bear with its cub.

Update from the #Arctic from our #CONTRASTS expedition participants: A sunny, peaceful transit day brought a magical sight — a young polar bear 🐻‍❄️ wandering along the edge of an ice floe. It is very fascinating to see such a beautiful creature!

@meereisportal.bsky.social‬

On the same course as in the minimum year 2012 The biggest news this month comes from the US: Staffing cuts at the US Department of Defense could jeopardise the most important time series on sea-ice development.

#Arctic sea ice is tracking 2012’s record lows-will the trend continue? In the #Antarctic, warm temps slow new-ice growth to near record-lows for June. Meanwhile, US restrictions on #satellite sea-ice data threaten vital climate time series. Find these news here: www.meereisportal.de/en/news-over...

taking measurement with a hyperspectral camera on a tripod

a person taking a measurement with an L-Band radiometer on sea ice

A sled with a device measuring ice thickness via electromagnetic conduction with Polarstern far away in the background

selfie of the three group members on the ice in front of Polarstern

Greetings from the CONTRASTS expedition: We already finished our first ice station with 4 successful days of melt pond reflectivity, L-band microwave emissivity + ice thickness measurements. The weather even allowed us to perform airborne 🚁 observations. Now we continue to our 2nd ice station! 🧊 📏

welcome slides of the consultation meeting being presented in a full room of people

Today is the day: The 2 final candidates for the @esa.int Earth Explorer 11 mission, WIVERN and CAIRT, are being presented at the public User Consultation Meeting in Prague. Our group is involved in WIVERN. After today, a committee will recommend which of the satellites should be built & launched.

The VAMPIREs are back! – AWI Polarstern The VAMPIRE team (“Water Vapour, Mixed-Phase Clouds and Sea Ice Emissivity over the Central Arctic Ocean”) began setting up its instruments on the deck of RV Polarstern while still in port in Tromsø. ...

Our group is also involved in atmospheric measurements during the #CONTRASTS expedition, lead by the University of Cologne: follow-polarstern.awi.de/blog/04-07-2... (Does this group have the best acronym? We think yes! 😉 )"

image of the bow of the icebreaker "Polarstern" surrounded by sea ice floes

We reached the sea ice edge! We're amazed to see the first sea ice during the CONTRASTS expedition and hope to get to our first ice station in the next days. Stay tuned!

The three people from our group standing in front of the research vessel Polarstern

Today we are boarding RV Polarstern in Tromsø for the two month #CONTRASTS cruise to the #Arctic You can follow us here: www.meereisportal.de/contrasts There is also a live webcam.

JAXA | Completion of Critical Operations Phase, Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle "IBUKI GW" (GOSAT-GW) Get information on the Completion of Critical Operations Phase, Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle "IBUKI GW" (GOSAT-GW). The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) per...

Congratulations to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (#JAXA) for the successful launch of the Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle "IBUKI GW" (GOSAT-GW) which also carries the microwave radiometer AMSR3! Fantastic news 🥳! Press release: global.jaxa.jp/press/2025/0...

Today is THE day for all sea ice interested folks at the @esa.int #LPS25: there will be fantastic talks and poster (Session A.09.09)! Do not miss out 😉 !!

CONTRASTS: Expedition will explore the melting Arctic sea ice Polarstern expedition to depart from Tromsø, Norway on 2 July to investigate the Arctic sea ice of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Next week, three group members will board RV Polarstern for the CONTRASTS expedition — a mission to investigate the Arctic sea ice of the past, present, and future. 🌊❄️
Want to learn more about this expedition? Check out the latest article on meereisportal:
www.meereisportal.de/en/news-over...

poster of the esa living planet symposium 23-27 June in Vienna showing the earth with a grid on it and a satellite observing the earth.

Next week, many of us will be at the @esa.int's Living Planet Symposium #LPS25 in Vienna! You can find us for sure in the #snow session (A.09.11) on Monday and in the #seaice session (A09.09) on Thursday. We are looking forward to this conference and hope to meet some of you there!

After some time of traveling in South America, our former PhD candidate, now postdoc, Hannah Niehaus has rejoined our group 🤗 While her PhD project was about melt ponds on #Arctic sea ice, she will now be looking into sea ice age and types in both hemispheres within the @esa.int #CCI project #SAGE 🧊

Group photo of the smiling members of the group on a green meadow with green trees in the background

This week we had our annual group retreat: 3 days in the countryside full off scientific discussions, group retrospectives & bonfires! This is a great change to our daily routines & a great chance to learn something new (whether it's AI tools for our science, chopping wood, or making waffles)!

Our group tracks #seaice extent. To create time series (see below), we align data from newer satellites with older sources using @nsidc.bsky.social data. It's troubling that maintenance may be halted (eos.org/research-and...).

We hope the value of these datasets is recognized before it’s too late!

✍️ 475 external experts & 40 EPB members have already signed our open call to secure Europe’s leadership in #polarresearch by targeted investments in #FP10 - and the number is still growing! www.europeanpolarboard.org/news-events/...

🚨 Add your name to the open call: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Getting ready for the #Arctic #expedition with #Polarstern! ❄️⛴️
As part of our last preparations we spent a full day learning how to stay safe during polar #bear encounters while working on the ice — including bear behavior training and handling firearms (strictly for self-defense in emergencies). 🐻‍❄️

Greetings from Denver! Last week we've been at the #AMS American Meteorological Society conference for Polar Meteorology and Oceanography with amazing presentations from #MOSAiC and #AC3 (www.ac3-tr.de).

Hi everyone, I’m Linxin! I joined the group last September as a #PhD in the (AC)³ program. My Master’s focused on machine-learning-based sea ice motion estimation. Now I study sea ice deformation and its link to Arctic Amplification. I love #painting and #nature. Nice to meet you!

The science team for the @esa.int Earth Explorer 11 candidate #WIVERN is meeting this week in Noordwijk, Netherlands. WIVERN would not only be a breakthrough for 3D #winds in #clouds and #storms but also deliver unique information about #seaice and #snow. More information: wivern.polito.it