The area north of Greenland has long been home for the thickest sea ice in the Arctic Ocean (and thus on Earth). The changing climate and increasing melt in the Arctic are now changing that.

During last week, winds pushed fragile sea-ice off Greeland's northernmost coast, and opened an area of ice-free ocean. An earlier such event had happened late February this year.   Because they fragilize the thick sea-ice cover close to the coast, such events can have strong implications on the total Arctic sea-ice volume at the end of the melt season (september).

DYK? CIMR is designed to support the EU Arctic Policy.

Read more about the EU Arctic Policy and learn more about the CIMR concept here.

The Mission Advisory Group (MAG) for CIMR will meet for the 2nd time in ESTEC, June 25th and 26th.

They will discuss the retrieval algorithms for the CIMR objectives (Sea Ice Concentration, Thickness, Drift, Sea Surface Temperature, Salinity, etc...), and the progress made by the two Phase A/B1 industry consortia so far. 

Read how CIMR will be a game-changer for measuring Arctic Ocean Sea Surface Temperature (SST), a crucial parameter for operational Arctic weather and met ocean forecasts!

 In February 2018, for an invited post at the EGU Cryospheric Science blog, Thomas Lavergne discussed how the Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer (CIMR) could be a game-changer for operational monitoring of sea-ice.

CIMR, the Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer now has its own webpage!

The webpage will gather useful information and resources about this Passive Microwave mission, candidate to the Expansion of the Copernicus Spate Component (CSC) from 2026.

CIMR is a user-driven mission in support of the European Union's Arctic Policy, with two focii: