ObsSea4Clim Training #7 - Sea ice loss: observations, validation and climate indicators

ABOUT THE TRAINING

Duration: 60 minutes

Contents:

This training session provided an overview of sea ice Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), datasets, validation and relevance for climate monitoring.

The module focused on:

• Sea Ice Concentration (SIC) ECV and derived indicators such as sea ice extent and open water days, including examples of how SIC propagate into these indicators.
• Sea Ice Surface Temperature (IST) ECV, including new datasets, validation, and derived indicators such as cold spells.
• Sea Ice Age as a derived climate indicator and its relevance for monitoring sea ice loss and climate change.

Recording available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osxxapEZzJ4 

Your trainers

Pia Englyst is a researcher at the DMI specialised in satellite-based observations of sea and sea-ice surface temperatures (SST/IST). Her work focuses on the development, validation and climate analysis of sea ice and surface temperature datasets, with applications in climate monitoring and model evaluation.

Jonathan W. Rheinlænder is a polar climate researcher and educator with more than 10 years of experience doing research in the high latitudes using climate models. He obtained his PhD in climate dynamics from the University of Bergen in 2020, during which he focused on the interplay between ocean circulation and sea ice and their role in abrupt climate change. His research focuses on sea-ice dynamics and the complex interactions between the sea ice, atmosphere, and ocean. He seeks to understand how openings in the sea-ice cover affect dense water formation in the polar oceans, and its impact on the global climate system.

Subscribe to the upcoming training sessions: follow ObsSea4Clim on Eventbrite

Reading Resources / References to the presentation:

Data:

• Sea Ice Concentration Climate Data Record from OSI SAF: https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/sea-ice-concentration-data-reprocessed-ssmr-ssmi-eum…
• DMI Arctic sea ice extent: Ocean and Ice Services | Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut
• Combined sea surface and sea ice surface temperature data derived from satellite observations in Climate Data Store: https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/datasets/satellite-ist-sst-global?tab=overview
• Arctic Sea Ice Age Climate Data Record v2.1: https://adc.met.no/dataset/7dde04c3-d3c5-5616-a02e-8bcebe463b05

Publications:

• Wernecke, A., et al. Estimating the uncertainty of sea-ice area and sea-ice extent from satellite retrievals, The Cryosphere, 18, 2473–2486, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2473-2024, 2024.
• Korosov, A. et al. A climate data record of sea ice age using Lagrangian advection of a triangular mesh, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 721–740, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-721-2026, 2026.
• Englyst, P., et al. Global satellite-based sea and sea-ice surface temperatures since 1982. Sci Data 13, 1052 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-07363-4

Additional ObsSea4Clim resources:

1. Presentation on sea ice loss work done in ObsSea4Clim delivered by Pia Englyst (DMI) at Ocean Best Practices Workshop, online, on 16 October 2024. Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/14054767 
2. Poster on Baltic sea ice and snow thickness presented by Xingfang Zhang (FMI) at ObsSea4Clim Annual Meeting, March 2025. Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/15038180
3. Presentation on how ocean reanalyses capture the Arctic marginal ice zone (MIZ) evolution delivered by Francesco Cocetta at the 12^th International Workshop on Sea Ice Modelling, November 2024. Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/17076880 
4. Poster on application of marine heatwave definitions to sea ice surface temperatures, presented by Alexander Hayward (DMI) at ESA Living Planet Symposium 2025. Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/17062253