Sea Ice in the Arctic Past, Present and Future

About this book

Sea Ice in the Arctic provides in-depth information about the sea ice in the Arctic at scales from paleoenvironmental variability to more contemporary changes during the past and present centuries. The book is based on several decades of research related to sea ice in the Arctic and its variability, sea ice process studies as well as implications of the sea ice variability on human activities.

The chapters provide an extensive overview of the research results related to sea ice in the Arctic at palaeo-scales to more resent scales of variations as well as projections for changes during the 21st century.

The authors have pioneered the satellite remote sensing monitoring of sea ice and used other monitoring data in order to study, monitor and model sea ice and its processes.

Contents

Preface/summary of book chapters
Chapter 1 Arctic sea ice and the climate system: an overview
Chapter 2 Sea Ice in the Arctic Paleoenvironments
Chapter 3 Changes in sea ice area and extent in the 20th and 21st centuries
Chapter 4 Changes in sea ice thickness and volume in the 20th and 21st centuries
Chapter 5 SAR sea ice type classification and drift retrieval in the Arctic
Chapter 6 Sea ice drift in the Arctic
Chapter 7 Sea ice modelling
Chapter 8 Operational forecasting of sea ice in the Arctic using TOPAZ System
Chapter 9 Projections of sea ice in the Arctic for the 21st century
Chapter 10 Climate change impact on the Arctic economy and society
References

Customer Reviews

Biography

Prof. Ola M. Johannessen is the President of the Foundation Nansen Scientific Society in Bergen and Visiting Professor at the Nansen Center/Institute of Atmospheric Physic, CAS, Beijing.

Previously he had faculty positions at the Institute of Oceanography, University of Sao Pauli, Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, McGill University, Montreal, Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, USA and Visiting Professor at Peking University, Beijing He was the Founding Director of the Nansen Center in Bergen in 1987 and later created the Nansen Group which consist of Nansen Centers in Bergen, St. Petersburg, Russia, Cochin, India, Beijing, China, Cape Town, South Africa and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

He has during his entire scientific career been the leader of large multidisciplinary international programs in different marine and coastal regions focusing on increasing the knowledge about the Arctic climate and environment. These programs include e.g.the Norwegian Remote Sensing Experiment (NORSEX’79); the mega-science Marginal Ice Zone Experiment (MIZEX) 1980-88, with 200 scientists and technicians involved; the Seasonal Ice Zone Experiment (SIZEX) 1989-92; CO2 and Deep Water formation (CARDEEP) 1993-95; the ESA/Russian Space Agency "ICEWATCH" Program of the Northern Sea Route 1995-1998. Furthermore, he has coordinated many EU, ESA, INTAS, Norwegian Space Center and Research Council of Norway projects, e.g., The Nansen Fellowship Program, the Marine Climate and Ecosystems in the Seasonal Ice Zone (MACESIZ), the EU-IPY Climate of the Arctic and its role for Europe (CARE) project.

Presently he is involved in the following scientific fields: Arctic climate system, including sea ice , internal waves in the Marginal Ice Zone and the effect of the warm subsurface fjord water on the calving of the outlet glaciers in the East Greenland fjords. Recent projects include climate variability and changes in the Eurasian Arctic in the 21st century, co-funded by the Russian Fund for Basic Research and the  Research Council of Norway.

OMJ is the author and co-author of more than 700 publications of which 9 are books and 185 are in refereed journals and books (see ResearchGate). The remaining publications are primarily proceedings, technical and special reports including outreach articles for the public. OMJ has been the supervisor for more than 30 Master and PhD students. He has received 12 awards for his research and leadership. He was the Laureate of the EU Descartes Prize in Earth Science in 2005 for leading the project: Climate and Environmental Change in the Arctic (CECA), was awarded the Nansen Foundation Medal for outstanding Research in 2007 and the Knight of the first class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St.Olav awarded by the King of Norway, Harald V in 2008. His scientific career has to a very large degree been dedicated to studies of sea ice in the Arctic, which is the main topic of the present book project.

Dr. Leonid P. Bobylev is Director of the Nansen International Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre (NIERSC), St. Petersburg, Russia, and the leader of the Climate Group. His scientific interests include the Arctic Climate System and climate change, Arctic amplification and its impact on weather and climate in mid-latitudes, Pan-Arctic hydrological cycle, satellite observations of the Arctic sea ice and atmospheric moisture; satellite monitoring of polar cyclones.

He was the Coordinator of the EU FP7 Project “European-Russian Centre for cooperation in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic environmental and climate research (EuRuCAS)”, 2012-2015, and a Nansen Centre Team Leader or Principal Co-investigator in many international research projects.

Dr Elena V. Shalina has been involved in sea ice research and applications since the late 1990s when she joined the Climate Group at the Nansen International and Remote Sensing Centre (NIERSC) in St. Petersburg, Russia. She has been engaged in the passive microwave, scatterometer and Synthetic Aperture Radar remote sensing studies. Her research interests include studying sea ice global transformation and its connections to the rest of the climate system and to climate change, assessing Northern Sea Route perspectives, large-scale mapping of snow on sea ice in the Arctic, mapping of snow-cover characteristics over land and studying permafrost changes. She was a task leader of several international research projects.

Professor Stein Sandven has studied and researched Marine and polar remote sensing, polar and coastal oceanography, sea ice research with emphasis on remote sensing methodology since 1987. Scientific publications have addressed oceanographic topics such as eddies, fronts, internal waves, ice edge processes and deep convection. The oceanographical studies include also ocean acoustics and acoustical observing systems. Papers with a focus on satellite remote sensing are dealing with sea ice observations with different types of sensors, sea ice classification, sea ice drift, and validation of sea ice remote sensing with in situ observations. Recently, papers have been published on the development of operational observing systems for the Arctic using both satellites, in situ, and underwater sensors.  From 2009 he has been involved in the development of the Svalbard Integrated Observing System (SIOS) which is an EU research infrastructure preparatory phase project starting in 2010.

He has generated several international and national research and application projects related to satellite remote sensing and polar oceanography. He has been a leader or task leader of more than 60 research projects. He has been the coordinator of 14 EU projects, including the H2020 Integrated Arctic Observing System (INTAROS) due to start in 2016. He has established extensive cooperation with Russian scientists in Arctic climate research, ocean and sea ice research and satellite earth observation. Many of the ongoing Arctic projects have therefore Russian participation. He has also been instrumental in establishing the Arctic Regional Ocean Observing System (ArcticROOS), which has 16 member institutions from 9 countries.