Global climate models and observations predict that global warming will be particularly pronounced in the Polar Regions. This has caused an increased interest in observations of the polar environment, which are sparsely distributed due to the hostile conditions. Space-borne passive microwave sensors are an established tool for remote sensing of the polar surface (sea ice) and atmosphere (temperature, humidity). In the near future, additional information will be gained from the new satellite sensors SMOS (Soil moisture and Ocean Salinity, launch 2008) and Cryosat (2009).

Analysis of such satellite data has been performed at the IUP for many years, together with the application of the resulting data in sea ice, ocean and atmospheric circulation models. We have methods to retrieve sea ice information from the intensity and polarisation signal from operationally available data. As an example, the IUP currently operationally provides the highest resolution sea ice data to be available on a daily and global basis. These data are based on measurements made with the passive microwave sensor AMSR-E aboard the NASA platform AQUA, launched in 2002.

 
Within the Helmholtz Research School, retrieval techniques will be applied to available satellite data to determine sea ice and atmospheric parameters. Furthermore, use of the AMSR-E satellite data will be extended to distinguish different sea ice types, and calibrated to the existing long-term time series of other satellite sensors (SMMR, SSMI, together since 1987) in order to provide a consistent time series suitable for assimilation into models of sea ice, ocean and atmosphere.