Improvements to monitoring the freeze/thaw state with radar satellites
The new study presents significant improvements to the existing methods, such as taking into consideration changes in the summer season. Soil F/T information is useful, for example, for users of heavy equipment, such as forestry machines. Soil freezing has a significant effect on the bearing capacity. Soil freeze/thaw (F/T) state in the boreal forest was […]
Significant funding for space weather research at Finnish Meteorological Institute
European Research Council awarded competetive ERC Consolidator Grant funding to Riku Järvinen’s project at Finnish Meteorological Institute. The grant is for five years and approximately two million euros. The project improves our understanding of space weather. The funded project studies space weather as observed by the European Space Agency’s and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s BepiColombo […]
New model for snow reflectivity may enhance satellite measurements of carbon dioxide in the Arctic
New radiative transfer simulations at the Finnish Meteorological Institute will likely improve satellite remote sensing of carbon dioxide and therefore advance the study of the carbon cycle in the Arctic regions. The simulations support the planning of the European CO2M satellite mission. Doctoral researcher Antti Mikkonen at the Finnish Meteorological Institute devised a mathematical description […]
Treasure chest of interdisciplinary and year-round Arctic climate system data publicly available
The year-round expedition into the central Arctic called “Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate” (MOSAiC) explored the Arctic climate system to gain fundamental insights that are key to a better understanding of global climate change. While anchored to a sea-ice floe, the German research icebreaker Polarstern passively drifted with the Transpolar Drift […]
New study quantifies the temperature inside tropical forests
Temperature is a fundamental factor defining the survival, growth, and reproduction rate of species living inside tropical forests. New study provides maps of temperature inside tropical forests that can be used by ecologists to improve the reliability of species distribution models. New worldwide estimates of temperatures inside tropical forests show that global warming may have […]
Climate Data Records of the Northern Hemisphere snow mass produced by FMI-Space used to assess the human impact to snow loss
The increasing fleet of Earth observing satellites has been a game changer in the monitoring of cryosphere. New analysis shows that human-induced emissions have caused decreases to snow mass in latitudes south of the 60 degrees, whereas the impact has been the opposite to northern latitudes. Consequently, results indicate that drastic decreases in river discharges […]
Machine learning and satellites produce immediate carbon dioxide flux predictions
Satellite observations and existing carbon dioxide flux estimates can be used to train a machine learning algorithm capable of making quick and accurate flux predictions. Researchers at the Finnish Meteorological Institute investigated a new approach using a random forest, a type of machine learning model, to predict future CO₂ fluxes. The model was trained with […]
Forest fragmentation is changing the shape of tropical trees – why does this matter for climate change?
Researchers used laser scanning to map out how the fragmentation of forests affects tree shape in the rainforests of Brazil. The results shed light on the impact of human activity on the tropical environment and on climate change in a new way. Until now, there haven’t been comprehensive studies to measure how forest fragmentation impacts […]
Satellites capture socioeconomic disruptions during the 2022 full-scale war in Ukraine
Satellite observations show significantly reduced air pollution levels over the major Ukrainian cities, power plants and industrial areas. Since February 2022, the full-scale war in Ukraine has been strongly affecting society and economy in Ukraine. Satellite observations provide crucial information to objectively monitor and assess the impacts of the war. A new paper published on Scientific […]
Terrestrial Laser Scanning to measure impacts of forest management
A group of researchers, including Co-operative (UH-FMI) Professor Eduardo Maeda, investigated the structural differences in boreal forests under different managements. The study included even-aged and uneven-aged stands in southern Finland that were measured using terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). From the hyper detailed 3D point cloud derived with TLS, structural characteristics can be measured in ways […]
