SO-SIMBA

In the ESA-funded SO-SIMBA project, a comprehensive Antarctic sea ice reference dataset is being developed by combining data on thickness, volume, drift, and snow/ice mass from multiple satellite missions (e.g., CryoSat-2, Sentinel-3, ICESat-2, SMOS, AMSR-2), with additional SWOT data used for calibration and validation. Advanced data merging and interpolation methods will improve accuracy and coverage, including new products such as Antarctic snow depth and estimates of ice motion and radar penetration depth. These results are validated using in-situ, airborne, and mooring measurements.
The project also ensures consistent uncertainty estimates across all datasets to support applications like model evaluation and data assimilation. In addition, the data will be used to study sea ice–snow–ocean interactions by quantifying freshwater fluxes and the full mass balance of sea ice and snow, and to assess their impact on upper ocean properties, circulation, and salinity. SO-SIMBA