CoreSat Kick-Off

Well I was at another project kick-off meeting yesterday (and this coming morning too).  CoreSat is a project funded here in Norway but with partners from Germany and Canada. Within Norway there are several institutions participating including NPI, the University of Tromsø and the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center.

CoreSat is aiming to improve measurements of sea-ice drift and ice thickness in Fram Strait to ultimately improve knowledge of the volume export of sea ice through Fram Strait.  This strait is one of the most important pathways for ice from the Arctic Ocean to be transported south. There has been some work on this over the past decade or two, but there is still limited information and some conflicting information out there, especially regarding changes in the drift speed of sea ice, some studies have shown an increase in time, others a decrease in time, and others show no significant trend.

Another factor limiting our understanding is that few of the studies have placed uncertainties on their estimates, making it hard to compare and assess.  In this project new products will be derived, existing ones compared and uncertainties assigned in order to determine the best product.  That final best product will then be analyzed.

The meeting was interesting, had some presentations on the current state of people's work related to the project.  Then a short discussion on some initial tasks to be completed (which will be continued today). We ended last night with a dinner at the top of the cable car.