Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

My research is concerned with the role of sea ice in the climate system, both as an indicator and modulator of changes of atmosphere-ice-ocean processes. In particular, I am interested in changes of the sea ice mass balance as a result of variations of the thermodynamic and dynamic boundary conditions for ice growth, melt, and deformation, including the role of the snow cover. While my studies generally include both Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, the recent focus of my research is the establishment of long-term, systematic ice mass balance observations of thick multi-year ice in the Arctic Ocean between the coast of Canada and the North Pole. These observations will include biannual airborne electromagnetic measurements of the seasonal and interannual ice thickness variability, as well as observations of ice deformation and snow properties. In-situ measurements will be complemented by satellite remote sensing and modelling work, and will contribute to the validation of new satellite products and model results. The research is significant as the areal coverage of Arctic sea ice is rapidly decreasing, at a pace much faster than predicted by any climate model. This demonstrates our limited understanding of climate processes and feedbacks in the Arctic. The disagreement can partially be explained by a misrepresentation of the sea ice mass balance in existing climate models, which is largely due to a general lack of systematic ice thickness observations in the Arctic Ocean. The observational and interpretive program which I am initiating in Canada will be unique worldwide in its application of long-term airborne measurements of large-scale interannual and seasonal sea ice thickness variations in an important region of the Arctic, and will contribute to systematic observations of changes of ice thickness and ice dynamics.