The last flight for the CIMRex field campaign took place on 8 March in very cold but clear weather in Svalbard. During the last of the three flights the team made plenty of measurements of the sea ice and also land ice flying southeast from Longyearbyen. The preliminary radiometric data from all three flights are looking very good and the fact that Hutrad2.0 has been able to cope with such low temperatures is a testimony of the great refurbishment work done by Harp Technologies.

Sea ice. (ESA–T. Casal)

The field campaign is part of the development phase of the Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer, CIMR, mission – one of six candidate missions for Copernicus.

Co-located measurements from the infrared and optical cameras were also acquired most of the time so we are confident that we obtained a very good dataset for future CIMR simulations.

Land ice. (ESA–T. Casal)

This campaign also had plenty of media attention, both from the EU and ESA. It was a great experience to interact with the media teams and have the opportunity to show them what we do and why we do it and we are looking forward to seeing the outcome.

Hutrad2.0 readout (left) and IR measurements (right). (ESA–T. Casal)

The successful CIMRex campaign proved once again how a hard-working and motivated team can accomplish a very challenging task.

CIMRex field team. (N. Cano)

Acknowledgements:
I would like to acknowledge each member of the field team: René Forsberg and Andreas Stokholm from DTU Space, Sampo Salo from Harp Technologies, Samuli Nyman from Aalto University and Juha Lemmetyinen from FMI and Norlandair.

The SIOS group in particular Inger Jennings for welcoming us and finding us a meeting room in the Univ. in Longyearbyen.

The remaining of the CIMRex team that provided us invaluable support remotely namely Thomas Lavergne (Met. Norway), Gunnar Spreen (Bremen Univ.), Janne Lahtinen from Harp Technologies, Jaan Praks (Aalto Univ.), Rasmus Tonboe (DMI), Malcolm Davidson (ESA).

Post from: Tânia Casal (ESA Campaign Coordinator)