This report was commissioned by the Norwegian Environment Agency in order to provide basic information for use in climate change adaptation in Svalbard. It includes descriptions of historical, as well as projections for the future climate development in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and ocean, and it includes effects on the physical nature e.g. on permafrost and various types of landslides ...

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite images are used to monitor Arctic sea ice, with systematic data records dating back to 1991. We propose a semi-supervised classification method that separates open water from sea ice and can utilise ERS-1/2, Envisat ASAR, RADARSAT-2 and Sentinel-1 SAR images. The classification combines automatic segmentation with a manual segment selection stage. The ...

Effective science communication is essential to share knowledge and recruit the next generation of researchers. Science communication to the general public can, however, be hampered by limited resources and a lack of incentives in the academic environment. Various social media platforms have recently emerged, providing free and simple science communication tools to reach the public and young people ...

Strong seasonality is a key feature of high-latitude systems like the Barents Sea. While the interannual variability and long-term changes of the Barents Sea are well-documented, the seasonal progression of the physical and biological systems is less known, mainly due to poor accessibility of the seasonally ice-covered area in winter and spring. Here, we use an extensive set of physical and biological ...

In this study we investigate the potential of sea ice segmentation by C- and X-band multi-polarisation synthetic aperture radar (SAR) features during late summer. Five high-resolution satellite SAR scenes were recorded in the Fram Strait covering iceberg- fast first-year and old sea ice during a week with air temperatures varying around zero degrees Celsius. In situ data consisting of sea ice ...

This paper explores the changing infrastructure around weather and sea ice information provisioning for Arctic marine areas. Traditionally, the most important providers of operational information on sea ice and weather conditions are the national sea ice and meteorological services. More recently, the community of Arctic information providers has become more heterogeneous with the establishment of ...

In this study we examine the relationship between sea ice melt pond fraction and two polarimetric C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) features. Three high-resolution SAR scenes were recorded in the Fram Strait in late summer 2011, covering iceberg-fast first-year and old sea ice. In addition, melt pond fraction was retrieved from photographs recorded during a helicopter flight at the study area. ...

The System for Assessment of Ecological Condition, coordinated by the Norwegian Environment Agency, is intended to form the foundation for evidence-based assessments of the ecological condition of Norwegian terrestrial and marine ecosystems not covered by the EU Water Framework Directive. The reference condition is defined as “intact ecosystems”, i.e., a condition that is largely unimpacted by modern ...

The paper presents a case study of the regional ( ≈ 150 km) morphological and optical properties of a relatively thin, 70–90 cm modal thickness, first-year Arctic sea ice pack in an advanced stage of melt. The study combines in situ broadband albedo measurements representative of the four main surface types (bare ice, dark melt ponds, bright melt ponds and open water) and images acquired by a ...