Newsletter #10

Newsletter #10 - June 17th, 2026
News from OSI SAF
Time has come for some updates from your Ocean and Sea Ice data provider!
A lot has happen recently in the satellite coverage of the ocean, and we've been busy maintaining you the best possible information. We've been busy improving our service too with our new Sea Ice Index, our our AMSR based Sea Ice Concentration Climate products, and are please to present you some new products such as our future Iceberg Climate products.
Our biggest actuality at the moment is the soon incoming transition from JAXA's AMSR2 to AMSR3. Find the most recent information on our story below.
Discover our latest news here...
Latest stories
Implications of AMSR2 being replaced by AMSR3 on OSI SAF products
AMSR3 aboard GOSAT-GW (NIES, JAXA)
The date for the operational release of the AMSR3-based sea-ice products has been set to 1st September 2026. From this date AMSR3 will be the main source of satellite input data for the OSI SAF sea-ice products. The sea-ice products based on AMSR3 are currently distributed with demonstrational status in parallel to the operational products based on AMSR2. On 1st September the AMSR3-based products will change to operational status, and the distribution of several (but not all, read further below) AMSR2-based products will stop.
Read the full story
EUMETSAT OSI SAF iceberg climate products

OSI SAF is taking on board Altiberg, formerly distributed by Ifremer, to provide a new climate product serie: Iceberg from Altimetry. This is a Level-3 gridded distribution, giving area and volume of small icebergs over both Southern and Northern polar seas. This serie of products will allow studies over small iceberg for the period runing from 1992 to present.
Check this story for more detailed informations!

Read the full story 		Iceberg from Altimetry
Analysis and validation of SeaWinds-derived coastal winds

In the context of the OSI SAF Visiting Scientist Activities Program, Giuseppe Grieco from the Italian Institute of Marine Science (ISMAR-CNR) worked on the validation of coastal wind retrievals obtained with the Sea-Winds pencil-beam radar cross sections corrected using the “Noise Regularisation” methodology.

Read the full story 		ontour plots of 2D normalized histograms of OSI SAF and JPL vs buoy wind speed within 40 km from the coast
Usage of Machine Learning to correct the Sea Surface Wind forecasts Numerical Weather Prediction model with Scatterometer observations

In the context of the OSI SAF Visiting Scientist Program, Evgeniia Makarova from the Barcelona Expert Center (BEC), Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC), Spain, worked on using machine learning to correct persistent wind biases in ECMWF’s ERA5 reanalysis weather forecasts. We here present the results of her study.

Read the full story 		Mean bias (m/s) of ERA5 (left) compare to NN-corrected ASCAT-B (right) for January 2023
Latest publications
2025 / Heorton et al.

Heorton, H., Tsamados, M., Landy, J., and Holland, P. R.: Observationally constrained estimates of the annual Arctic sea-ice volume budget 2010–2022, Ann. Glaciol., 66, e9, 2025.
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2025.3
2025 / Krumpen et al.

Krumpen, T., Von Albedyll, L., Bünger, H. J., Castellani, G., Hartmann, J., Helm, V., Hendricks, S., Hutter, N., Landy, J. C., Lisovski, S., Lüpkes, C., Rohde, J., Suhrhoff, M., and Haas, C.: Smoother sea ice with fewer pressure ridges in a more dynamic Arctic, Nat. Clim. Chang., 15, 66–72, 2025.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02199-5
2025 / Bartsch et al.

Bartsch, A., Tanguy, R., Bergstedt, H., Von Baeckmann, C., Tømmervik, H., Macias-Fauria, M., Lemmetyinen, J., Rautiainen, K., Gruber, C., and Forbes, B. C.: Similarities between sea ice area variations and satellite-derived terrestrial biosphere and cryosphere parameters across the Arctic, The Cryosphere, 19, 4929–4967, 2025.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4929-2025
2025 / Zhao et al.

Zhao, K., A. Stoffelen, et al.: A rain effect elimination approach using FengYun-3E WindRAD dual-frequency measurements, Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters, 2025.
https://doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.aosl.2025.100725.
2025 / Xu & Stoffelen

Xu, X. and Stoffelen, A.: Wind and Sea State Signatures in Wind Scatterometry: An analysis, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine, 13, 153–174, 2025.
http://doi.org/10.1109/MGRS.2024.3501472
What's up ?

New Sea Ice Index, with easier access

We've been working on improving our Sea Ice Index, releasing a new improved version on 04/05/2026. Additionaly to the timeseries visuals, the new version also provides maps, better regional coverage. All our visuals are available in English, Norwegian, Danish and French.

Finaly, visuals are now available directly on on our website (see below).

 

Daily global Sea Ice Extend (as for 16/06/2026)

 

Wanted: level 2 Metop based Sea Surface Temperature users

We are currently developing our future Sea Surface Temperature products from the new generation of Metop satellite. Based on the infra-red radiometer METimage, these products allows enhanced temporal and spatial resolutions. We are then currently looking for users of our AVHRR level 2 products (granules) in order to adapt the new product to their needs. If you are currently using these products, please contact us to tell us more!

CDOP 5: Next phase starting next year

It is now official, the next 5 years phase of our program will start in March 2026! We plan a lot of new development, and will have the pleasure to present them in a next newsletter!
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