Topic 1f: Introduction to MOSAiC
Topic 1f - Part 2: Introduction to MOSAiC (Second Leg)
This topic introduces the MOSAiC Mission. The MOSAiC mission aims to better understand the Arctic climate system and its representation in global climate models. MOSAiC provides robust scientific basis for policy decisions on climate change mitigation and adaptation and it helps set up a framework for managing Arctic development sustainably.
Follow Michel and Julienne as they embark on their legs of the project. Their insights highlight some of the challenges of working as a scientist in the Arctic.
Dr Michel Tsamados was part of the first leg of the MOSAiC mission, accompanied by colleagues from UCL. They embarked the Russian Ice Breaker ‘Akademic Fedorov’ in September 2019, which then went to meet the German icebreaker Polarstern, which was the key research ship. He was teaching during the MOSAiC School a helping with field measurements as part of a NERC funded Ka/Ku snow radar penetration project.
Professor Julienne Stroeve was part of the second leg of MOSAiC (Part 2 video) and joined the Polarstern in November 2019. She took part in a remote sensing project and returned in May 2020.
Many processes in the Arctic climate system are poorly represented in climate models because they are not sufficiently understood. As long as we do not understand these processes, Arctic climate projections will not be robust.
The understanding of Arctic climate processes is limited by a dramatic lack of observations in the central Arctic, especially in winter and spring. During these seasons sea ice is so thick that even the best research icebreakers cannot penetrate into the Arctic and researchers have always been locked out. The dramatic changes in the Arctic climate system and the fast retreat of Arctic sea ice strongly affect global climate. The inability of modern climate models to reproduce Arctic climate change is one of the most pressing problems in understanding and predicting global climate change.
MOSAiC sets out to investigate the heart of the Arctic climate system year-round – which will allow for a more accurate understanding of the data we can collect from satellites.
The year-long MOSAiC mission was completed in October 2020, when the Polarstern returned to its home port. Later on in the course, we will take a look at some of the initial findings from the mission, and will hear first-hand reports of the state of the Arctic from the scientists that were on board.
Featured Educators:
- Neil Aellen
- Carolynn Harris
- Sam Cornish
- Chelsea Harvey
- Dr Michel Tsamados
- Dr Thomas Rackow
- Professor Julienne Stroeve
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You can take the end of week quiz by clicking on the quiz tab located below the video.
Course topics
The core videos of this course are labelled as topic videos.
We have also provided a range of optional further reading, links, and additional resources to help consolidate your learning. Here is a summary of what is available:
Topic links and resources
In each topic, once you have watched the video and read the accompanying text, you will find the following information:
- Optional Further Reading: These are external links to further reading.
- Featured Images and Animations: Below the text on each video page, you’ll find the featured images and featured animations.
- Interactives: On the 'Interactives' tab on relevent topic pages, you will find a satellite tracking application showing the current location of the satellites, a data viewer from the ESA WEkEO platform, as well as a data viewer, specially created for this course, allowing you to explore a selection of data relevant to the themes and topics in this course. (Please note that due to maintenance, the data viewer is currently unavailable).
Quizzes and comments
- Quizzes: At the end of each week there will be a quizz consisting of around five questions. These will help you consolidate your understanding of new topics, but are not scored. The feedback given with each answer also will also provide you with important information.
Weekly interactive exercises
At the end of each week, we have included a guided exercise, using interactive apps available on other websites, to help you become more familiar with looking at and working with EO datasets. You will be guided through the process of searching for, comparing and drawing conclusions from data relevant to some of the topics covered in that week.
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The MOSAiC expedition is one of the biggest and logistically most complex scientific expeditions of our time, this fact sheet covers how they ensured it was undertaken sustainably
