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Tromsø has become
the centre of satellite
research in Norway.
From here, satellites
can monitor Norway's
extensive marine areas,
sea ice in the Arctic
Ocean and the rain
forests of Africa.
Tromsø has become the centre of satellite
research in Norway. From here, satellites
can monitor Norway's extensive marine
areas, sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and the
rain forests of Africa.
Earth observation satellites are extre-
mely useful tools for monitoring climate
change, particularly changes in sea ice
extent, glaciers and vegetation. Using sa-
tellites to provide remote measurements
of environmental features gives us much
more accurate information about the pla-
net than by trying to undertake the same
measurements from the ground.
"Today it is almost impossible to conduct
polar research without satellites," says
Torbjørn Eltoft, a professor of physics at
the University of Tromsø.
Tromsø has seen enormous growth in
recent years in businesses and research
institutions that work with satellite data.
The world's largest and best-positioned
station for downloading weather and
environmental data from Earth observa-
tion satellites is in Svalbard, which makes
Tromsø a very favourable location for
satellite-related activities.
The university's contribution to this lar-
ger effort is to develop accurate methods
to analyse the images that satellites take.
Different kinds of ice
"One important aspect of climate monito-
ring is measuring how much ice is out in
the Arctic Ocean. In recent years, the area
covered by sea ice has been shrinking,"
Eltoft says. Sea ice can be difficult to
monitor from satellites, since ice proper-
ties change from day to day. And in some
cases, it can be a challenge to distinguish
ice from water on satellite images.
But how much data can you really get
from a satellite? A lot, Eltoft says.
Satellites in Tromsø
16
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Labyrint E/11
– University of Tromsø
Text: Randi M. Solhaug
Satellite image of sea ice. The variation in the grey scale shows the dynamics of the reflected signal. Dark areas are likely newly frozen ice, while areas with higher intensity have greater
roughness, and can be multi-year ice. Photo: Department of Physics and Technology