Snow and sea ice properties and processes
We study properties and processes of snow and sea ice as important elements within the atmosphere-ice-ocean system. Their relevance for climate and ecosystem reaches far beyond Polar Regions and they are known as indicators of global climate change. To improve our understanding of snow and sea ice properties and processes we combine field measurements, ice laboratory analyses, interpretation of remote sensing products and numerical modelling.
In this subject we mainly focus on (near) surface processes and study them over a wide range of spatial and temporal resolutions. This allows us to analyse the complex interactions of snow and sea ice with atmosphere and ocean, as well as to compare sea ice and snow in Arctic, Antarctic and ice covered seas in lower latitudes.
We study the following subjects: