Earth Observation and Artificial Intelligence for Automatic Sea Ice Mapping

• Main Author: Stokholm, Andreas Rønne
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Technical University of Denmark 2024
• Subjects: /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action; name=SDG 13 - Climate Action; Global warming; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/c43229da-ec3a-4829-9031-1b1cedad7731; https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/371893021/PhD_thesis-v2.pdf

Sea ice is everchanging, and mapping it is important to navigate safely and efficiently in the remote and cold Arctic, as ships can get stuck and capsize in the ice. Sea ice mapping is also important for monitoring the state of the climate and as information input to weather and climate models because the sea ice acts as an insulating material between the ocean and the atmosphere. The amount of sea ice in the Arctic is diminishing due to global warming, which makes this region more hospitable and navigable. This introduces new economic opportunities, such as adventure tourism, resource extraction, and the opening of new trading routes to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through the Arctic. With these new possibilities, nationstates scramble to assert their influence and control. Less sea ice is believed to result in a more dynamic ice environment so that hazardous conditions will remain present. For these reasons, sea ice mapping will continue to be relevant and can be viewed as a critical infrastructure component in the Arctic. At, among others, the ice service at the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), professional ice analysts draw ice charts daily based on radar images acquired by satellites orbiting the Earth. Radar images allow sea ice observation throughout the year in relatively high resolution, independent of sunlight and clouds. However, the radar images are challenging to interpret because the radar measurements depend on the measurement angle and the observation surface, where the roughness and material composition influence the measurements. Therefore, different ocean and sea ice surfaces can appear identical. Consequently, professional sea ice analysts analyse the radar images manually to create precise and detailed sea ice charts with information about the local sea ice conditions based on their indepth knowledge and understanding. Naturally, this is a time and resource demanding process, which limits the number of produced ice charts and delays the delivery of the critical information. ...