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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

🧊 Where does ice melt faster: in fresh- or saltwater? Come by our stand at BREMENwelt Wissenschaft and find out for yourself! 🔬🌊 We’re currently setting up our booth with hands-on experiments on sea ice, satellite observations & polar expeditions! 📍 2 Oct, 16–20h | 3 Oct, 10–20h Bremen city centre

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Fantastic @ESA-EO #VOCALIS2026 workshop about validation of altimeter missions over ice surfaces in Longyearbyen, Svalbard last week. Gunnar presented about synergies with #CIMR, the upcoming Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer.

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Busy conference week! Gunnar, Janna, Linxin & Max joined the (AC)³ conference in Bremen, bringing together results as the project enters its final year. Marcus joined the ESA Polar Science Cluster meeting in Innsbruck, exchanging ideas on polar science, remote sensing & future satellite missions! 🛰️

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Sometimes science means glorious discoveries. Sometimes it means tidying up the lab (with minor finds of dust, forgotten stationery, & ancient labels). After freight returned & cluttered the room, we now have a tidy lab again including new shelves + work benches to prepare for upcoming expeditions!

three photos side by side, with a packed room on the left, people moving stuff in the middle and a clean lab on the right

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

This week, our team was at two international events: 🧊 Christian & Gunnar at #SCAR2026 Open Science Conference in Oslo, discussing #Antarctic science & policy, with input for AntarcticaInSync and IPY5. 💻 Marcus at #JuliaCon, engaging with the scientific computing community #JuliaLang

Christian and Gunnar smiling in front of their poster at the SCAR conference

Marcus in front of a screen introducing his talk at the JuliaCon

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

After more than a year traversing the #Arctic and #Antarctica 🧊 aboard the #RVPolarstern 🚢, our instruments have finally returned to the lab. They delivered valueable #data for the #CONTRASTS and #SWOS #expeditions. Now it's time for some maintenance...

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

It is our annual group retreat and we spend it on the island Heligoland in the North Sea. Waves, winds, red rocks, seals and birds: a great location to reflect on the last year and discuss future works!

rock formation Lange Anna on the island with gannets

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

The #Arctic melt season has begun. 🧊☀️💧ESA #satellite data show the first melt ponds forming since early June. Their growth varies across the Arctic: rapid expansion on flat fast ice in the Canadian Basin, but slower development on rough drifting sea ice in the Kara Sea.

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

This week, PhD candidates of the (AC)³ research project came together. Through talks, writing sessions, and discussions, we exchanged useful practices on a wide range of topics, incl. scientific writing, AI tools, and statistics. A productive + inspiring week of learning, exchange, and networking! 🤓

room during PhD retreat, someone giving a presentation

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Linxin and Marcus represent our group this week at the ICCWG workshop in #Copenhagen. It's a pleasure to interact with so many international sea ice researchers in one place, sharing experience. Great workshop so far – Shoutout to DMI for organizing! #seaice

Linxin and Marcus standing in front of their posters, smiling.

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Nice sea ice fracturing event captured by NASA's MODIS satellite instrument between March 15 and May 1 in the Beaufort Sea. Imagery generated using worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

CEMSIE campaign done! 🎉 While we dive into data, here’s a snow fact: Snowflakes aren’t all dendrites❄️—some are needles! Spot them in the photo? Once snow lands on the ground, it doesn’t stay the same—it transforms! In the CEMSIE snow pits we found beautiful depth hoar: large, cup-shaped crystals.

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

🛰️ We are currently observing sea ice concentrations in the Arctic that are lower than ever before for this time of year! A comparison of the sea ice concentration on 7 May 2026 with the average for that date over the last 14 years shows that the changes in the Kara Sea are particularly striking.

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

More from CEMSIE! The days are getting longer, but still there are measurable differences between day and night. Therefore we overnight at the CEMSIE camp ⛺ and operate the instruments and our L-band radiometer 📡 gets to see a sunset 🌅

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Hello from Iqaluktuttiaq/Cambridge Bay 🇨🇦! We are part of the CEMSIE #campaign (saltysnow.ca/cemsie/) to study snow and sea ice with #radiometers and #radars 📡! It is the second leg of the campaign and it is getting "warmer" (-7° right now) but we still enhoy our heated tent 🥶⛺.

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

The 5th International Polar Year (IPY5.info) is coming up in 2032-2033. Last week the kick-off for the German national committee took place in Gießen. We are excited for the upcoming activities, projects and outreach!

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

While new craters are being named on the Moon 🌒 by the #ArtemisII crew 🚀, did you know a new island 🏝️ —tiny, but still!— was discovered during the Polarstern cruise we mentioned earlier? It needs a name as well! What do you suggest? We are looking forward to your comments! www.awi.de/en/about-us/...

awi.de

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Hello from the #Arctic System Science Conference in #Potsdam! We three are presenting our results including new insights into sea ice deformation from satellite remote sensing and under-pond ice thickness based on data from last year's #CONTRASTS expedition!

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Since more than 2 weeks the RV Polarstern #SWOS expedition is now conducting research in the western Weddell Sea. The days are starting to get shorter while we are measuring L-band microwave brightness temperatures of sea ice to improve our satellite retrievals for the upcoming EU/ESA #CIMR mission.

Instruments installed on deck facing the sea-ice covered surface

Gunnar with the L-band radiometer on the sea ice

Polarstern as seen from the sea ice with lights on under foggy conditions

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Greetings from GEOMAR in Kiel, where the Status Conference Research Vessels takes place and results from 2 years of research cruises (of all German research vessels!) are presented. The sheer amount of collected data, scientific discoveries and multi-disciplinary collaborations is very impressive!

GEOMAR building with a banner in the foreground saying "Status Conference Research Vessels 2026".

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Greetings from the (AC)³ science #conference in #Cologne where our two PhD students Linxin and Max are presenting their #research on sea ice deformation and melt ponds on #Arctic sea ice. Nice discussions and a lot of valuable input for further improvements!

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

The #Polarstern SWOS #expedition to the #Antarctic Weddell Sea 🚢 🇦🇶 has started. During the weekend we left Punta Arenas 🇨🇱 and are now crossing the famous Drake Passage. Let's hope it is not getting to wavy 🌊 You can follow us under follow-polarstern.awi.de

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Our colleague Linxin Zhang is attending the #winterschool at Sun Yat-sen University on "Arctic atmosphere–ocean–sea ice interactions and their linkages with mid-latitudes" in Zhuhai, #China. Absorbing new knowledge from lecturers from all over the world and enjoying many activities and talks!

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

The three cryosphere musketeers ❄️ Moin! We're the master students of the Remote Sensing of Polar Regions group 🤗 From left to right: Isabel, Goli and Raquel. Interested in what we're working on? Then look in the comments down below for more info about our thesis projects...

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Our colleague Janna (@jannaeismeer.bsky.social) is currently in Bern, Switzerland 🇨🇭at the meeting of the Snow/Sea Ice Emission and Backscatter Modelling team (ISSI) working on how to represent snow and (sea) ice surfaces for numerical weather predictions. Full days of lively discussions!

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

We welcomed the current low-pressure system, #Elli, with open arms and used it as an opportunity to gain #fieldwork experience. How often do we get the chance to measure up to 20 cm of #snow in Bremen? ❄️

two people in the snow measuring and digging

selfie of 7 people holding up snow measurement instruments

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

The scent of the holidays is in the air, both at the Christmas market & our Institute's Christmas party! 🎄🤶🎅 We're also happy to have welcomed Ferran Hernández Macià from Barcelona Polar Lab as a visiting doctoral researcher for the past two weeks. We wish you all happy holidays, see you next year!

part of our group at the Christmas party

selfie of part of our group at the Christmas market

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Yesterday, most of our working group spent the evening at a #pubquiz 🤓 Although we had to split into two groups and compete against each other, we ended up with the same number of points and reunited 😄

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Great news! The CIMR-L2PAD project 🛰️ successfully passed the Detailed Design Review stage at a collaborative meeting at @esa.int ESRIN 🇮🇹! Maria Piles and our colleague Marcus Huntemann enjoyed the fruitful meeting, despite difficult weather conditions 🚀

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

What satellites will we need for science and society by 2040 and beyond? This is the topic of the national science expert group workshop at Deutscher Wetterdienst @dwdderwetterdienst.bsky.social in Offenbach this week.

Gunnar standing at the entry of the DWD (Germany Weather Service)

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Hi! 🤗 I’m Zhifeng, and I recently joined the group as a visiting PhD candidate from the Ocean University of China for 1 year. Coming from physical oceanography my current research focuses on retrieving summer sea ice concentration from passive microwave observations, with a focus on melt ponds.

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Intensive and very productive workshop at @esa.int ESRIN in #Frascati 🇮🇹 to write the science plan 📝 for the large, international #AntarcticaInSync initiative! 🤝 More information about Antarctica InSync: www.antarctica-insync.org

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Great to get the latest news about the AMSR3 instrument on the recently launched GOSAT-GW #satellite 🛰️, during the JAXA PI meeting last week in #Tokyo. First data was shown and is looking great! 🥳 We are looking forward to make use of the new 183 GHz channels.

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

2 weeks ago, our colleague Marcus gave an overview of the CIMR L2 Snow depth retrieval implemented within the L2PAD project on the @esa.int #CIMR Expert User Group workshop in Barcelona. Now we're addressing the valuable comments and feedback. Another month till the detailed design review, let's go!

Marcus giving a talk, standing in front of a slide about the CIMR product

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

It is now official: #WIVERN has been selected as @esa.int Earth Explorer 11 mission! ➡️ www.esa.int/Applications... We were involved in studying how the 94 GHz radiometer and Doppler radar can be used for sea-ice observations and are therefore very happy and excited that this instrument will fly!

esa.int

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Greetings from Potsdam! 4 of us were attending the general assembly of the (AC)3 research project www.ac3-tr.de this week. We showed and admired posters about different topics all the way from the #Arctic ocean to high clouds and discussed our cross-cutting activities.

Four people from the working group on a roof terrace under blue sky

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Are you interested in the regional differences of melt pond formation and evolution in the Arctic? Or did you ever wonder how these are related to the sea ice surface topography and ice types? Then check out our new paper: tc.copernicus.org/articles/19/...

tc.copernicus.org

Regional and seasonal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

Abstract. Melt ponds on sea ice significantly modify the absorption of solar radiation by the sea ice-ocean system in the Arctic, thereby influencing the energy budget and sea ice mass balance. Conseq...

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Attention locals: This week is maritime week in #Bremen. Saturday and Sunday you can visit the Forschungsmeile (mile of research) at the Weser river where you find us and our little sea ice experiments (for kids and grown-ups!) www.bremen.de/kultur/veran...

bremen.de

Die Maritime Woche 2025 - Feiern an der Weser

Bremen feiert seinen maritimen Charakter!

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

CONTRASTS wraps up after 2 months in the central Arctic aboard RV Polarstern: 61 days at sea, 30+ days on sea ice, terabytes of data, and 3 ice floes revisited across 3 ice regimes. Big thanks to the 43 crew supporting 57 scientists on RV Polarstern. AWI press release: www.awi.de/en/about-us/...

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

As the giant #Antarctic iceberg #A23a is currently breaking apart, we created a video about its dance in the water in the last year, including spinning in a Taylor column! Even though A23a is not sea ice, the microwave signature is similar and it shows up in our data! Can you spot it in the video?

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Hi! I’m ARIEL, an L-band microwave radiometer 📡, and this is my little buddy Sebastian (the pulka 🛷). Together, we traveled across 3 Arctic ice stations ❄️ to uncover the invisible (aka microwave) secrets of ever-changing summer sea ice and its thickness on the @awi.de CONTRASTS #expedition 🧊.

Smiling Gunnar standing in fron of radiometer on pulka with Polarstern in the background

Radiometer mounted on pulka in foreground, person taking measurements and research vessel Polarstern in the background.

Radiometer mounted on pulka in front of a beautiful fresh sea ice area.

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Can the color of melt ponds reveal the sea-ice thickness below? 🧊 And can we measure this from #space? 🛰️ On the @awi.de CONTRASTS #expedition, we’re testing this with a 200+ band hyperspectral camera and co-located ice thickness measurements for a large variety of #Arctic ponds.

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

One of our master students, Isabel Krüll, had the great opportunity to join a cruise of Le Commandant Charcot to do some research at the North pole. They were able to do 2 ice floe landings with drone flights, ice thickness measurements & buoy deployments and even saw a polar bear with its cub.

two people on the sea ice installing instruments

sea ice floe with people on it with the ship in the back taken from a drone

Isabel on the ice at the North Pole in front of the ship

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Update from the #Arctic from our #CONTRASTS expedition participants: A sunny, peaceful transit day brought a magical sight — a young polar bear 🐻‍❄️ wandering along the edge of an ice floe. It is very fascinating to see such a beautiful creature!

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

#Arctic sea ice is tracking 2012’s record lows-will the trend continue? In the #Antarctic, warm temps slow new-ice growth to near record-lows for June. Meanwhile, US restrictions on #satellite sea-ice data threaten vital climate time series. Find these news here: www.meereisportal.de/en/news-over...

meereisportal.de

On the same course as in the minimum year 2012

The biggest news this month comes from the US: Staffing cuts at the US Department of Defense could jeopardise the most important time series on sea-ice development.

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Greetings from the CONTRASTS expedition: We already finished our first ice station with 4 successful days of melt pond reflectivity, L-band microwave emissivity + ice thickness measurements. The weather even allowed us to perform airborne 🚁 observations. Now we continue to our 2nd ice station! 🧊 📏

taking measurement with a hyperspectral camera on a tripod

a person taking a measurement with an L-Band radiometer on sea ice

A sled with a device measuring ice thickness via electromagnetic conduction with Polarstern far away in the background

selfie of the three group members on the ice in front of Polarstern

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Today is the day: The 2 final candidates for the @esa.int Earth Explorer 11 mission, WIVERN and CAIRT, are being presented at the public User Consultation Meeting in Prague. Our group is involved in WIVERN. After today, a committee will recommend which of the satellites should be built & launched.

welcome slides of the consultation meeting being presented in a full room of people

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

We reached the sea ice edge! We're amazed to see the first sea ice during the CONTRASTS expedition and hope to get to our first ice station in the next days. Stay tuned!

image of the bow of the icebreaker "Polarstern" surrounded by sea ice floes

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Remote Sensing of Polar Regions, University of Bremen @polarbremen.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Today we are boarding RV Polarstern in Tromsø for the two month #CONTRASTS cruise to the #Arctic You can follow us here: www.meereisportal.de/contrasts There is also a live webcam.

The three people from our group standing in front of the research vessel Polarstern

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