- Acronym
- SWIMMING
- Code
- PNRA18_00298
- Research area
- Marine science
- Specific research topic
- Improved satellite products for sea ice and polar ocean monitoring
- Region of interest
- Antarctica, Arctic Ocean
- Project website
- https://www.instagram.com/swimming_pnra/
- PI
- Vincenzo Capozzi
- PI establishment
- University of Naples Parthenope
- Institutional website
- https://www.uniparthenope.it/
- Other institutions and subjects involved
- Prof Peter Wadhams (Università Politecnica delle Marche)
- Consistency of the research team
- 1 professor (M), 2 associate professors (M-F), 1 professor emeritus (M), 2 technicians cat.D (M-M), 1 RTD-B researcher (M), 2 RTD-A researchers (M-M), 2 research fellows (F-F), 2 doctoral students (M-F).
- Project status
- In progress
- Main stations used
- Attività svolta in Italia Nave
- The project
The SWIMMING project aims to improve knowledge of the characteristics of sea ice and polar oceans, with a focus on sea ice formation processes. Another goal is the validation and improvement of existing satellite products that can describe sea ice and polar ocean conditions at different spatiotemporal scales. Indeed, ice monitoring is
essential both to make navigation safer, for example in the Arctic region, and to improve understanding of the processes of
interaction between ocean and atmosphere that characterize the global climate balance. Satellite algorithms and numerical models used today are often useful only for certain categories of ice and/or in specific areas; moreover, such systems often lack appropriate validation due to the lack of measurements collected in situ.
In this context, the SWIMMING project involves a series of field experiments through the participation of Italian researchers in polar expeditions
aboard foreign ships in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. These activities involve direct monitoring of sea ice, with
particular attention to pancakes and floes, and the study of ocean surface features. In addition to sample collection/analysis and measurements with wave buoys placed in and out of the sea ice extent boundary, independent observations from the bridge, measurements by radar, and video footage are planned to document the state of the ocean ice surface. Monitoring of the physical characteristics of the water column, on the other hand, is done through the continuous monitoring system operated through thermosalinographs and specific CTD downdrafts.
All activities are coupled with the acquisition/analysis of remote sensing observations obtained through a wide range of satellite platforms, such as Synthetic Aperture SAR Radar (Sentinel-1, CosmoSkyMed, Radarsat-2, ALOS), passive microwave sensors (SSM/IS - AMR2) and in the visible and infrared (MODIS).
- Images
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- Motivation, importance of research
Global warming is causing the rapid melting of ice in the polar regions. The Arctic is warming rapidly, and sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere is thinning and shrinking in extent significantly, affecting Earth's albedo and thus the planet's energy balance. Satellites help us monitor these changes and investigate what is causing them. The causes of this reduction in extent, and even more so in thickness, are not fully understood and probably combine thermodynamic effects with mechanical processes. The extent and concentration of sea ice significantly affect the Earth's albedo and thus the planet's energy balance. Sea ice also affects climate and biogeochemical cycles by driving ocean circulation, modulating heat, gas, and momentum exchanges with the atmosphere, and creating a key active substrate. Despite this importance, many processes that control the mass, properties, distribution, and seasonality of sea ice remain poorly understood. Existing in situ observations are scarce, especially in autumn and winter, i.e., during periods of ice formation and stabilization, and some key properties such as sea ice thickness remain essentially unobserved.
In this context, remote sensing satellite observations are of paramount importance to provide a better understanding of such
phenomena and processes. Although numerous approaches have been developed to estimate sea ice properties, many of them are limited to a particular range, type and/or region of sea ice and are constrained by the limited presence of direct observations useful for assessing their actual accuracy. In this context, the SWIMMING project aims to collect observations of the polar oceans, sea ice and ice caps in order to improve our ability to monitor ongoing climate change through the development, implementation and validation of new satellite products and the optimization of existing ones. To this end, SWIMMING plans to collect in situ direct observations of the polar oceans and present sea ice through participation in research campaigns aboard platforms in other countries, and/or as part of international initiatives, over the period 2020-2023, drawing on numerous national and international collaborations involving eminent polar scientists (e.g. Prof Peter Wadham).
- Objectives of the proposal
Using a combination of in situ and remotely sensed measurements, the SWIMMING project aims to:
1- provide a better understanding of the physical processes and feedbacks responsible for the seasonal cycle of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice;
2- enable new methods to generate value-added sea ice products from remotely sensed data;
3- develop a larger multi-platform observational database to describe the ice margin zone and its variability;
4- develop of new sea ice classification products that could make polar navigation safer.
Specific objectives include collecting a large set of in situ frazil and pancake ice measurements co-located with sensed satellite data, mostly SAR imagery, to be used to validate a large suite of remotely sensed sea ice classification products.
- Activities carried out and results achieved
The Extreme-E campaign's support of the SWIMMING project during the year 2021 provided a perfect opportunity to collect
in situ data while transiting aboard the ship "St Helena." During the three-week voyage, 78 surface water samples were collected along more than 4,000 nautical miles, covering very diverse areas from Greenland to the Azores, the Strait of Gibraltar and the
Mediterranean Sea, and crossing important oceanic structures (e.g., the Labrador Current, the North Atlantic Current, the Algerian Current
and its meanders). Samples were collected at a depth of about 4 meters every 4-6 hours or so. This information is being analyzed to validate and improve existing satellite products related to the surface salinity of the oceans in the mid to high latitudes and to derive useful information on the surface layer of the Atlantic Ocean to be correlated with Greenland ice cover variability. Cal/val activities of ocean surface salinity observations, on the other hand, are ongoing in collaboration with Spanish colleagues at the Barcelona Expert Center, developers of the advanced SMOS products. In addition, during the voyage aboard the S.Helena, the terrestrial remote sensing segment at the University of Naples Parthenope acquired a large dataset of Greenland ice sheet observations. In addition, a new tool for satellite monitoring (very high resolution) of glacier varibaility at the ice-sea interface was developed and tested for the Drygalsky ice tongue in Antarctica and the Iberville Glacier in the Arctic.
- Products
Aulicino, G., Wadhams, P., Parmiggiani, F. SAR pancake ice thickness retrieval in the Terra Nova bay (Antarctica) during the PIPERS Expedition in winter 2017. Remote Sens. 2019, 11, 2510.
Marcianesi F., Aulicino G., Wadhams P. Arctic sea ice and snow cover albedo variability and trends during the last three decades, Polar Science 2020, 100617.
Zahriban Hesari, M., Nunziata, F., Aulicino, G., Buono, A., Migliaccio M. Analysis of fine-scale dynamics of the Drygalski ice tongue in Antarctica using satellite SAR data, International Journal of Remote Sensing 2022, 43 (7), 2602–2619.