MOSAiC: Floe-scale observation and quantification of Arctic sea ice breakup and floe size during the autumn-to-summer transition (MOSAiCFSD)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Huddersfield
Department Name: Sch of Applied Sciences
Abstract
This project investigates multi-scale sea ice processes in the so-called marginal ice zone (MIZ), a region in the Arctic Ocean typically consisting of small, discrete ice floes in summer. This MIZ is very dynamic, easily affected by waves and wind, which enhances the heat and momentum exchanges between ocean and atmosphere. This dynamic MIZ has been grown during past decades, and is projected to grow to an even greater extent (almost all sea ice cover becoming the MIZ by 2080).
The very inherent process within this expanding MIZ is sea ice freeze-up, deformation, spring breakup and summer melt. In autumn, open water and ice floes survived the summer melt consolidate to form a continuous sheet of winter ice that contains a mixture of multiyear ice (from last summer), first-year (grown from autumn) and newly formed ice (grown later season). This winter ice is then deformed and fractured to form leads/cracks or ridges. In spring, this winter ice breaks apart into small discrete floes, which will be further broken apart or melt in summer. We hypothesize that this seasonal evolution of ice floes is linked and should be understood to improve sea ice-ocean/climate model prediction.
In this project, we aim to generate new observational data and understanding of this seasonal evolution of ice floes, at the year-long MOSAiC drifting station. For this, we will conduct small-scale (below 2 km) observation of sea ice freeze-up, deformation, spring breakup and summer melt using a combination of high-precisions GNSS buoys, drifters and airborne/satellite observations. This small-scale observational data will be combined with large-scale observation of deformation (above 2 km), ice types/features and floe size, forming a unique multi-scale data set, which will provide a comprehensive picture of the seasonal of ice floes. We will also explore the possibility to incorporate the generated data set into specific models to measure and demonstrate the impact of our process study.
The data set and knowledge gained from this project will enable modelling communities to develop, calibrate and validate their new/existing model parameterisations of sea ice-ocean and climate models, thus improving climate projection in the Arctic and providing improved advice to national and international governing bodies for climate change issues.
The very inherent process within this expanding MIZ is sea ice freeze-up, deformation, spring breakup and summer melt. In autumn, open water and ice floes survived the summer melt consolidate to form a continuous sheet of winter ice that contains a mixture of multiyear ice (from last summer), first-year (grown from autumn) and newly formed ice (grown later season). This winter ice is then deformed and fractured to form leads/cracks or ridges. In spring, this winter ice breaks apart into small discrete floes, which will be further broken apart or melt in summer. We hypothesize that this seasonal evolution of ice floes is linked and should be understood to improve sea ice-ocean/climate model prediction.
In this project, we aim to generate new observational data and understanding of this seasonal evolution of ice floes, at the year-long MOSAiC drifting station. For this, we will conduct small-scale (below 2 km) observation of sea ice freeze-up, deformation, spring breakup and summer melt using a combination of high-precisions GNSS buoys, drifters and airborne/satellite observations. This small-scale observational data will be combined with large-scale observation of deformation (above 2 km), ice types/features and floe size, forming a unique multi-scale data set, which will provide a comprehensive picture of the seasonal of ice floes. We will also explore the possibility to incorporate the generated data set into specific models to measure and demonstrate the impact of our process study.
The data set and knowledge gained from this project will enable modelling communities to develop, calibrate and validate their new/existing model parameterisations of sea ice-ocean and climate models, thus improving climate projection in the Arctic and providing improved advice to national and international governing bodies for climate change issues.
Planned Impact
This project will generate, as part of MOSAiC, new datasets and knowledge of physical processes in the marginal ice zone (MIZ) of the changing Arctic Ocean, including the impact of thinner, smaller floes in the expanding MIZ and subsequent increase in deformation and floe breakup/melting. We will quantify small-scale (below 2 km) deformations and floe breakup/melt mechanisms and evaluate their impacts to the reduced sea ice cover. This small-scale observational data will be combined with large-scale observation of deformation, ice types, fracture features and floe size, forming a unique multi-scale data set over the full annual cycle. The synthesis of the data will then be used to improve model parameterisations and address fundamental questions about the seasonal dynamics of sea ice.
The unique data/outputs generated from this project will benefit the MOSAiC team, modelling scientists as well as national and international Arctic/Antarctic research communities. We will engage with these specific users through direct collaborations such as project partnership and existing connections. For wider user communities, the improved sea ice-ocean/climate models, aided by our outputs, will benefit national and international policy makers, private sectors such as oil/gas and shipping/insurance companies, as well as local Inuit communities. We will achieve this through peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals, presenting the results at major international conferences/workshops, and arranging private meetings with stakeholders.
The unique data/outputs generated from this project will benefit the MOSAiC team, modelling scientists as well as national and international Arctic/Antarctic research communities. We will engage with these specific users through direct collaborations such as project partnership and existing connections. For wider user communities, the improved sea ice-ocean/climate models, aided by our outputs, will benefit national and international policy makers, private sectors such as oil/gas and shipping/insurance companies, as well as local Inuit communities. We will achieve this through peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals, presenting the results at major international conferences/workshops, and arranging private meetings with stakeholders.
Organisations
- University of Huddersfield (Lead Research Organisation)
- NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE (Collaboration)
- Brown University (Collaboration)
- Korea Polar Research Institute (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF READING (Collaboration)
- Oregon State University (Collaboration)
- German Aerospace Centre (DLR) (Collaboration)
- Central University of Finance and Economics (Collaboration)
- Hokkaido University (Collaboration)
- Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Collaboration)
Publications
Bateson A
(2022)
Sea ice floe size: its impact on pan-Arctic and local ice mass and required model complexity
in The Cryosphere
Chai Y
(2021)
Texture-Sensitive Superpixeling and Adaptive Thresholding for Effective Segmentation of Sea Ice Floes in High-Resolution Optical Images
in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
Ha V
(2022)
Multiscale Spatial Fusion and Regularization Induced Unsupervised Auxiliary Task CNN Model for Deep Super-Resolution of Hyperspectral Images
in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
Hwang B
(2022)
Multi-scale satellite observations of Arctic sea ice: new insight into the life cycle of the floe size distribution.
in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Hwang B
(2020)
Report Card
in MCCIP Science Review 2020
Nicolaus M
(2022)
Overview of the MOSAiC expedition: Snow and sea ice
in Elem Sci Anth
Wang Y
(2023)
Summer sea ice floe perimeter density in the Arctic: high-resolution optical satellite imagery and model evaluation
in The Cryosphere
| Description | We highlight the key results according to the objectives of the project. Observe and evaluate how autumn freeze-up and winter ice dynamics/features affect spring breakup and floes. To understand the ice dynamics from the autumn freeze-up to spring breakup, we have deployed high-precision GNSS/INS buoys for the duration of the MOSAiC expedition (Nov 2020 to Sept 2021). The deployment and operation of the GNSS/INS have been successful through collaboration with the MOSAiC ice dynamics team. Despite harsh environments and technical issues, we collected the data for around 70% of the whole duration. The collected GNSS/INS data detected the deformation events (fracture or ridging) at the spatial scale of centimeters and temporal scale of one-tenth of a second. This type of high-precision and high-frequency observation over a long period of time is the first time, as this is not possible with standard GPS drifters. This dataset provides new insight into how fracturing and ridging occur and how those events are related to external forcing and ice properties. The MOSAiC ice dynamics team is working together to write a collaborative research article on major ice dynamic events during the MOSAiC expedition, and this unique data set is providing information on floe-scale dynamics, which contributes to a new understanding of small-scale ice deformations and fracture or ridging processes (still in progress). The raw GNSS/INS dataset has been submitted to the Polar Data Centre and published with public access. The same raw GNSS/INS dataset has been used to generate a kinematically corrected GNSS/INS dataset, which allows us to measure centimetre-scale deformation events. The kinematically corrected GNSS/INS dataset has been submitted to the Polar Data Centre and is currently in preparation for publication of the dataset. In addition to the GNSS/INS buoys, we have analysed GPS drifter data, satellite imagery and aerial survey photograph mosaic data to examine the impact of ice dynamics on spring breakups and floes. Multiple satellite imagery data were acquired through collaboration within the MOSAiC team. The satellite imagery includes TerraSAR-X, Kompsat, Cosmos-SkyMed and Radarsat-2. From the analysis of the satellite imagery, we have found that the initial floe size distribution right after the spring breakup has a characteristic of a power law with the exponent of -2. We attribute this unique behaviour to the scale-invariant nature of sea ice fracturing (deformation), confirming ice dynamics play a significant role in shaping the initial floe size distribution. This finding has been highlighted in a recent publication in Philosophical Transactions A. The GPS drifter dataset has been submitted to the Polar Data Centre and published to the public. Observe and quantify how spring floes and floe failure/melt affect summer ice floe size evolution. The GNSS/INS buoy data also show floe-scale fracture at the MOSAiC site. During Leg 4 of the MOSAiC expedition, the operation of the GNSS/INS buoys was more consistent than in previous legs. The collected data captured the floe fracture of a summer ice floe at the MOSAiC site. This allowed us to understand the floe failure at the centimetre-scale precision and the temporal resolution at 10 Hz. To track the floe size evolution for each floe, we analysed satellite imagery at the GPS drifter deployed floes. This dataset provided us with information on how the floes evolved from spring breakup to summer melt. We are currently analysing the aerial (helicopter) surveys conducted at the MOSAiC site. The aerial photograph mosaic data have been processed by the AWI, and we are collaborating with Niklas Neckel at the AWI to analyse this dataset. It should be noted that this aerial photograph mosaic dataset have been available with floe drift correction of the helicopter photographs (i.e., sea ice floes were moving during helicopter surveys and these movements need to be corrected). We combine the aerial photograph mosaic data with satellite imagery to understand the floe size evolution at floe scales as well as examine the scaling property of the floe size distribution. We are currently combining these datasets with existing high-resolution satellite imagery (available from USGS GFL) for the preparation of journal publications on floe fragmentation and floe size evolution. Synthesize the generated data and outputs to address the project hypothesis, and incorporate them into sea ice-ocean models through model parameterisation and calibration/validation and possible assimilation. Our research on the floe size distribution highlighted the importance of ice dynamics in shaping the floe size distribution during spring and summer. This research has led to the inclusion of brittle failure in the sea ice model, which showed an improvement in simulating the floe size distribution in the model (A Bateson, 2021). The floe size distribution from this research also contributes to model-observation comparison (Wang et al. 2023). Our research included three different sea ice-ocean models to compare with the observation data from this research. This is the very first model-observation comparison study in the literature. Our research reveals that the two prognostic models (based on physical parameterisation) overestimate the floe perimeter density for small floes (the size less than tens of meters) and underestimate the floe perimeter density for large floes (the size larger than tens of meters), while a power-law sea ice model shows more comparable results to the observation for the large floes. Significant overestimation of the perimeter density by the models can be partly attributed to the limitation of the observation in terms of image resolution. This research suggests further research is required to understand the causes of the differences between the observation and the models. We also published research to improve sea ice floe size retrieval from satellite imagery. The new algorithm uses texture-sensitive super-pixeling and adaptive thresholding to achieve a better segmentation of sea ice floes. This research has been published in IEEE JSTARS. As indicated in the COVID impact, the overall progress of our research has been slow partly because some of the collaborative datasets have been available very recently and direct interactions between the collaborators have been limited. We have interacted with the collaborators through online meetings and emails to deliver the key results outlined above. We assess that the major objectives have been achieved, but the publications of the results are still in progress and expect to report more in the next year. |
| Exploitation Route | The datasets generated from this research such as GNSS/INS data, GPS drifters and floe size distribution have been published by the Polar Data Centre and are accessible to other researchers and the public. We are also making efforts to have more direct engagement with the researchers. For example, the dataset link for GNSS/INS and GPS drifter datasets has been shared with the MOSAiC ice dynamics team to improve our understanding of the scaling of ice deformation from the floe-scale (in centimetres) to large scale (hundreds of kilometres), and its impact to the floe size distribution. We are closely working with sea ice-ocean modelling researchers in the UK and worldwide. We will make sure our findings and datasets are used to improve their model development efforts. By continuing the engagements with the modelling researchers, we anticipate that our research and datasets impact climate modelling and prediction. This is already being achieved by a new NERC project to implement new physics into climate models. |
| Sectors | Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| Description | Our research made an impact through new datasets, journal publications, climate impact report cards, major conference presentations and public lectures. Our research was highlighted in the MCCIP report card that the multi-disciplinary observation program (MOSAiC) is essential for a better understanding of the complex atmosphere-ocean-sea ice system in the Arctic. The MCCIP report card is widely read by policymakers, stakeholders and the public who are interested in climate and environmental topics. The new datasets and research generated from the research have been used in journal publications and conference presentations. As highlighted in the publications and presentations, our research and dataset contributed to the inclusion of new physics into sea ice-ocean models and the improvement of the models in simulating the Arctic sea-ice components, ultimately the improvement of climate models. For a wider impact of our research, the datasets generated from our research have been published in the Polar Data Centre and continue to have a close collaboration with sea ice-ocean and climate modelling researchers to maximise the use of our research for the improvement of climate projection in the Arctic through the projects inspired from this research. This provides improved advice to national and international governing bodies for climate change issues. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | Fragmentation and melt of Arctic sea ice |
| Amount | £501,119 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/V011693/1 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2022 |
| End | 01/2025 |
| Title | Manufacturing and deployment of GNSS/INS buoys |
| Description | We have assembled six GNSS/INS buoy systems to measure the sea ice deformation at a few centimetres of precision. These buoy systems have been tested and sent to the MOSAiC drifting site, and currently in operation. These systems will allow not only capture small-scale deformation events at high temporal (10 Hz) and spatial (a few cms) scales but also measure any disturbances caused by dynamic ice conditions (acceleration). |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The GNSS/INS buoy systems we have assembled and deployed at the MOSAiC drift site will allow us to improve our understanding of small-scale (less than 1 km and shorter than 1 hour) sea ice deformation processes. Understanding of such small-scale deformation is critical as most of violent deformation processes such as ridging and lead opening occur at this scale. Yet, such small-scale observation has been scarce. We anticipate the year-long measurement from the GNSS/INS buoy systems at the MOSAiC drift site will made an important impact in this context. |
| Title | Floe size distribution from satellite and aerial survey data at the MOSAiC site |
| Description | Sea ice floe size distribution data have been derived from the satellite imagery data and aerial photograph mosaic data. Various satellite images and aerial survey photograph mosaic data were analysed to derive the floe size distribution (still in progress). The complete dataset is planed to submit the Polar Data Centre later in 2023. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The floe size distribution data from various satellite imagery data and aerial survey photograph mosaic data provide an important information on the scaling property of the floe size distribution and its seasonal evolution. The derived dataset itself has been or can be used to validate sea ice models. For example, Y Wang et al (2021) used the new observation data to evaluate the three different models that implemented the floe size parameterisations. The dataset has been also used to support the research by B Hwang that recently submitted to Philosophical Transactions A Theme Issue: Theory, modelling and observations of marginal ice zone dynamics - Multidisciplinary perspectives and outlooks. A long-term impacts of this dataset is to improve climate models by providing a better insights how to handle the floe size processing in the sea ice modelling component within climate models. |
| Title | Ice Tracker data of Arctic sea ice during the MOSAiC expedition 2020-2021 |
| Description | 20 Ice Trackers were deployed at the MOSAiC drifting site. The deployment of the trackers was made from the helicopter onboard RV Polarstern during Leg 5 of the expedition. The data contain the GPS positioning of the trackers (and the motion of the ice on which the trackers were deployed). The data record starts from early September 2020 and lasted until July 2021 for the longest-surviving trackers. The trackers started their drift near the North Pole and move to the south through the Fram Strait. The deployment of the trackers was done in collaboration with the MOSAiC ice team. This work was funded by NERC MOSAiC program NE/S002545/1. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The dataset provides the ice dynamics during Leg 5 of the MOSAiC expedition and beyond. The dataset has been shared with the MOSAiC ice dynamics team, and included in the broader GPS drifter database. |
| URL | https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01649 |
| Title | Multi-satellite floe size distribution of Arctic sea ice 2000-2020 |
| Description | This dataset contains the floe size distribution (FSD) data derived from multi-satellite imagery data acquired across the Arctic Ocean. Satellite imagery data includes high-resolution visible images from the USGS Global Fiducials Library (MEDEA), TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X and Worldview-3 (WV3). The derived data contain floe size (calliper diameter), shape factor, minor/major axis, perimeter and area of the floes. This data set has been used to investigate the characteristics of the FSD during major seasonal evaluation stages of Arctic sea ice floes. The retrieval of the FSD data was done by the University of Huddersfield team. This work was funded by NERC MOSAiC program NE/S002545/1. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The dataset and linked journal article have been published and presented at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (Cambridge, UK). This created impacts on sea ice modeling development/improvement, as well as future research project ideas combining observation and modeling. |
| URL | https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01650 |
| Title | Raw GNSS/INS buoy data during the MOSAiC expedition 2019-2020 |
| Description | This dataset contains the raw data from GNSS/INS (Global Navigation Satellite System/Inertial Navigation System) buoys deployed during the 2019-2020 MOSAiC expedition. These buoys recorded the data from GNSS and Sensors. The raw GNSS data contain time, latitude, longitude, velocity, and fix type. The raw Sensors data contain time, acceleration, gyroscope, magnetometer, and temperature. These data were sampled at 10 Hz. The original data was in ANPP format (see advancednavigation.com/), which have been converted to structured ASCII formats (such as RINEX, CSV) using Spatial Manager software. The buoys were assembled by the University of Huddersfield team and the deployment was done by the MOSAiC ice team throughout the expedition. This work was funded by NERC MOSAiC program NE/S002545/1. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The dataset has been used to calculate centimeter-precision baseline changes between the buoys, which can allow us to study fast-evolving ice dynamics such as cracking, lead opening or ridge formation at 10Hz. The dataset has been shared with the MOSAiC ice dynamics team. |
| URL | https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01686 |
| Title | Texture-sensitive superpixeling and adaptive thresholding for effective segmentation of sea ice floes in high-resolution optical images |
| Description | A computer algorithm has been developed to improve the retrieval of sea ice floe size from satellite imagery. This algorithm uses texture-sensitive superpixeling and adaptive thresholding to achieve a more effective segmentation of sea ice floes in satellite imagery. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This new method can improve the efficacy of sea ice floe segmentation. This will provide us with a more accurate estimation of sea ice floe size distribution from satellite imagery, which will inform sea ice modelling scientists for the validation or calibration of their models. |
| URL | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9271815 |
| Description | Collaboration with Brown University |
| Organisation | Brown University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Our research team contributed Dr Horvat's research by providing observational data set to his modelling studies. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Dr Horvat contributed to journal publication. Dr Horvat is a project partner of our NERC MOSAiC project. |
| Impact | The collaboration leads to a joint conference presentation. Wang, Y., Bateson, A., Hwang, B., Aksenov, Y., Horvat, C. (2020) Model-observation comparison of sea ice floe size distribution in the Arctic. AGU Fall Meeting, 2020. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Collaboration with Central University of Finance and Economics |
| Organisation | Central University of Finance and Economics |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We provided our expertise and satellite imagery to the collaborator. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The collaborator contributed her expertise in image processing to develop a computer algorithm and improve sea ice floe retrieval from satellite imagery. |
| Impact | A joint journal publication was published. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Collaboration with DLR |
| Organisation | German Aerospace Centre (DLR) |
| Department | DLR Munich |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The NERC project contributed Drs Lehner and Rosenthal the opportunity to join the inter-disciplinary workshop (called FSD workshop, directly funded by NE/M00600X/1). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Drs Lehner and Rosenthal contributed to the collaborative workshop by providing the presentation on high-resolution satellite SAR works and participating group discussions regarding future collaborative research involving modelling and observations of sea ice. |
| Impact | The collaborative workshop (called FSD workshop, held on July 6-7, 2015 at the Scottish Association for Marine Science). |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Collaboration with Dr Takenobu Toyota |
| Organisation | Hokkaido University |
| Country | Japan |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I have contributed to Dr Toyota in a conference paper and discussion session. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Dr Toyota has contributed to a conference paper and discussion session. |
| Impact | a conference presentation at the IGS sea-ice meeting; discussion session at the SOLAS Open Science Conference |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Collaboration with NOC |
| Organisation | National Oceanography Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The NERC project contributed Drs Aksenov and Hosekova to join the inter-disciplinary workshop (called FSD workshop, directly funded by NE/M00600X/1). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Drs Aksenov and Hosekova contributed to the collaborative workshop by providing the presentation on their sea ice floe size modelling works and participating group discussions regarding future collaborative research involving modelling and observations of sea ice. |
| Impact | The collaborative workshop (called FSD workshop, held on July 6-7, 2015 at the Scottish Association for Marine Science). The collaboration leads to a joint conference presentation. Dr Aksenov is the external advisor of PhD student Yanan Wang at the University of Huddersfield, and a co-author of the manuscript submitted to The Cryosphere. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Collaboration with OSU - Jenny Hutchings |
| Organisation | Oregon State University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Our research team is providing high-precision ice dynamics buoys to record cm-accuracy ice deformation fields. This data set contributes to Jenny Hutchings research in building multiscale deformation fields. We also provide logistical and scientific contribution to her summer observation during the MOSAiC fieldwork. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Jenny Hutchings from Oregon State University is lead coordinator of sea ice dynamics for MOSAiC program and a project partner of NERC MOSAiC (MOSAiCFSD) project. In December 2018, she visited our research team at Huddersfield and discussed about fieldwork planning, science and logistics. Her team is providing the support for our winter observation of ice dynamics. The success of our research depends on a year-long (continuous) observation, and her team's contribution is crucial to make this happened. |
| Impact | The outcomes of this collaboration include more coordinated efforts and documentation for the collaborative fieldworks. It will grow more in scientific collaboration in the coming years. This collaboration is not multi-disciplinary, the same geophysical research. A joint conference presentation at American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in 2020: Basu, R., Dutta, D., Hwang, B., Hutchings, J.K. (2020) Medium-scale sea ice deformation during autumn-to-winter transition in the Arctic Ocean. AGU Fall Meeting, 2020. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Collaboration with Reading |
| Organisation | University of Reading |
| Department | Department of Meteorology |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The research data generated from the project contributed to the research team at the Univesity of Reading to development new sea ice models. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Their model outputs and expertise contributed to the training of our research staff. |
| Impact | The collaboration leads to a joint conference presentation. Wang, Y., Bateson, A., Hwang, B., Aksenov, Y., Horvat, C. (2020) Model-observation comparison of sea ice floe size distribution in the Arctic. AGU Fall Meeting, 2020. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Collaboration with the AWI |
| Organisation | Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Our research team use the helicopter mosaic images from the AWI to derive the sea ice floe size distribution. The derived floe size distribution will be analysed with the floe size distribution data from other satellite imagery. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The AWI provides helicopter photographs of sea ice floes at the MOSAiC site. These aerial photographs are important to derive the floe size distribution, especially for small floes. |
| Impact | No specific outputs to report yet. However, we are coordinating the datasets including helicopter photographs and satellite imagery. From the combined dataset we will investigate the power-law behaviour of the foe size distribution covering the floes size from sub-meter to a few kilometres. The helicopter photograph mosaic images are also being used to identify the cracks and ridges, created by the deformation events detected by the GNSS/INS buoys at the MOSAiC site. We expect more tangible outputs can be reported next year. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Collaboration with the DLR |
| Organisation | German Aerospace Centre (DLR) |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Our team analysed the TerraSAR-X images to derive the floe size distribution and the detailed ice conditions at the GPS drifters deployed at the MOSAiC site. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The DLR has coordinated the acquisition of the TerraSAR-X images at the MOSAiC site. At this stage, no direct contribution was made - i.e., providing the TerraSAR-X images, yet in discussion providing TerraSAR-X images for the collaborative research. |
| Impact | The dataset from this collaboration contributed to the submission of an invited paper for Philosophical Transactions A Theme Issue: Theory, modelling and observations of marginal ice zone dynamics - Multidisciplinary perspectives and outlooks. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Collaboration with the KOPRI |
| Organisation | Korea Polar Research Institute |
| Country | Korea, Republic of |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Our research team used the Kompsat SAR images to identify floe characteristics at the MOSAiC site. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The KOPRI provided Kompsat SAR images at the MOSAiC site. |
| Impact | No specific outputs yet. However, the Kompsat SAR images are part of multiple satellite imagery data that we combine to derive the floe size distribution and identify floe characterisation, in which the publication we are currently working on. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | 2018 UK Sea Ice Group Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I gave a talk on sea ice floe size (algorithms, analysis and physical implication) at the 2018 UK Sea Ice Group Meeting, NOC, UK. The talk sparked the interests of audience and initiated the discussions on key research issues of Marginal Ice Zone process. This led to request for further information in terms of data analysis and interpretation for next year's meeting. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | BBC Radio Interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | BBC Radio interview at Leeds about NERC MOSAiC project and current Arctic research. The interview broadcasted throughout Yorkshire. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Featured story in Yorkshire Post newspaper |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | NERC MOSAiC project work was featured in the Yorkshire Post published on 21th September, 2018. The article introduced the Arctic research funded by NERC MOSAiC and explained the historical background behind MOSAiC program and urgent needs for Arctic research on climate change. Although the impact is difficult to assess, this article would be seen by general audience in Yorkshire region and beyond. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Guest speaker at SOLAS Workshop on Remote Sensing for Studying the Ocean-Atmosphere Interface |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was invited as a guest speaker at the SOLAS (Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study) Workshop on Remote Sensing for Studying the Ocean-Atmosphere Interface, USA. In this talk, I introduced my research on Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) from the algorithm development to process studies. This talk raised the importance of MIZ process related research and discussions and led to future related activity within SOLAS community: forming a discussion session on MIZ process at the SOLAS Open Science Conference to be held in Japan in April 2019. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2018 |
| URL | https://www.confmanager.com/main.cfm?cid=2778&nid=16562 |
| Description | Invited talk at Mathematics of sea ice in the twenty-first century |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I gave a talk at the workshop (Mathematics of sea ice in the twenty-first century) at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, UK. Around 30-40 researchers around the world attended, mostly academics and researchers specialised in Arctic sea ice and ocean modelling. At the workshop, my talk raised the interest and needs for the observational data to improve the models. The feedback from the audience influenced a future proposal idea. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.newton.ac.uk/event/sipw05/ |
| Description | Invited talk at the 2022 eFutures Conferences on Electronics for Sustainable Societies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I gave a talk at the 2022 eFutures Conference, "Electronics for Sustainable Societies". Around 50 plus audiences attended, mostly academics and business in electronics. Raised the interest among the group on environmental monitoring applications using electronics in connection with polar and global climate changes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://efutures2.com/ess2022/ |
| Description | Public Lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This is an online Public Lecture, titled Earth Observation: The way to "see" global environmental change. In this webinar, I presented a wide range of topics on earth observation, including Arctic research. Around 55 online audiences attended and many of them identified as the general public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | The Climate Change Panel at Hud-IET on Campus |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was one of the panelist in the climate change panel was organised by Hud-IET on Campus and IET West Yorkshire Local Network. In the panel discussion meeting, I have provided a scientific view and findings on climate change. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | The University of Huddersfield's Journey to Net-Zero: A Panel Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This panel event is to inform the University's plan for net-zero. In this panel meeting, I shared Arctic research and the importance of it in the context of climate change issues that we are currently facing. This online panel meeting attracted about 66 people. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | The Virtual Atmosphere-Cryosphere-Ocean seminar series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited speaker at The Virtual Atmosphere-Cryosphere-Ocean seminar series. This online event was jointly organised by IUGG, IACS, IAMAS and IAPSO, inviting participation from the researchers, postgraduate students, professionals and the public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://cryosphericsciences.org/vaco-21/ |
| Description | featured in Discover magazine |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | NERC MOSAiC funded activity was featured in the annual magazine published by University of Huddersfield. I am not aware of any direct impact, but this story increased the awareness of Arctic research and its importance in understanding of climate change. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://discover.hud.ac.uk |