Jari Haapala

Past and current climate change

This section describes long-term observed climatic changes in atmospheric parameters. The focus is on surface climate conditions, but changes in atmospheric circulation are discussed as they often are behind climatic variability seen on regional and local scales. For a summary introduction on mean atmospheric states and conditions in the Baltic Sea Basin see Annex 1.2 with sections on the general atmospheric circulation (A.1.2.1), surface air temperature (A.1.2.2), precipitation (A.1.2.3), clouds (A.1.2.4), and global radiation (A.1.2.5).

Comparison of SAR data and operational sea ice products to EM ice thickness measurements in the Baltic Sea

In February 2003, sea ice thickness measurements using an electromagnetic induction (EM) instrument were made in the Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf of Finland. We have made comparisons between the EM measurements and Radarsat-1 ScanSAR Wide mode SAR data, and also between our operational sea ice products (digitized ice thickness charts, and ice thickness charts refined by the latest Radarsat-1 image). The SAR images are in 100 m resolution, and the other products are in 500 m resolution

Polarview@FIMR: WWW-based delivery of baltic sea ice products to end-users

Sea ice information for navigational purposes is essential in the Baltic Sea. Winter navigation is made possible by the use of icebreakers, ice-strengthened vessels and by restricting navigation. Thus the icebreakers need detailed ice information for route planning. The smoothness of traffic has been possible due to better ice monitoring, where use of Earth observation data has become more and more important. For this purpose the FIMR PolarView web pages have been set up and they contain information to aid navigation in the area of the Baltic Sea. One such future SAR-based product could be the ice motion estimated from successive SAR images. For this purpose an algorithm for the ice motion detection has been developed at FIMR. Also the presentation of the existing products will be developed, for an example also the animations of the SAR-based ice thickness charts and ice predictions will probably be available in near- real-time next winter.