Walt Meier

Remote sensing of sea ice

Investigate various remote sensing methods for sea ice parameters, including concentration, motion, age/type, and thickness. Develop new methods for improved data and combined data products.

Passive microwave remote sensing

Update and improve long-term record of sea ice concentration and extent. Create and enhance climate data record of sea ice that meets standards for documentation and provenance. Develop products for new sensors and create enhanced fields that include uncertainty estimates.

Arctic sea ice and climate interactions

Use satellite data to investigate interaction of sea ice and Arctic climate. Develop and provide sea ice products that will improve synoptic and season ice forecasting capabilities. 

Improved estimates of the seasonal and inter annual evolution of Arctic sea ice age through tracking of sea ice parcels

Sea Ice

Sea ice motion tracked by remote sensing and autonomous buoys can be used to advect important surface and atmospheric properties to better account for the dynamical contribution to the seasonal evolution of the ice cover. Melt onset, thickness, temperature are tracked through the summer melt season to assess how dynamics affects the processes. 

Climate indicators to track the seasonal evolution of the Arctic sea ice cover to support stakeholders

Sea Ice

New remote-sensing based sea ice climate indicators are being developed to extend and enhance current common indicators such as sea ice extent. The new indicators will provide a different way of assessing Arctic change and will be relevant to stakeholder interests.

Enhancing the utility of the AMSR-E NASA Team 2 sea ice concentration product with uncertainty and variability estimates

Remote Sensing

The uncertainty estimates previously developed for AMSR-E sea ice concentration will be validated and calibrated via comparison with other satellite products. These validated uncertainties will provided improved fields in the AMSR-E and AMSR sea ice products.

Towards a network for Arctic sea ice prediction

Sea Ice

A multi-agency (ONR, NSF, NASA) project to coordinate sea ice prediction efforts, including the annual SEARCH Sea Ice Outlook. The project will improve access to useful data sets for prediction and coordinate modeling activities, including forecast assessments and development of metrics.

Sea ice concentration climate data record sustainment, enhancement and production of value-added products through the Sea Ice Index

Sea Ice

Work with the National Snow and Ice Data Center to extend and update the NOAA/NSIDC sea ice climate data record. A major part of the effort will be to create a near-real-time version of the product to support NSIDC and NOAA's analysis activities.

Forecasting future sea ice conditions in the marginal ice zone: a Lagrangian approach

Sea Ice

A project supported by the Office of Naval Research to use sea ice drift observations to track sources and sinks of sea ice and compare with climate models. Such comparisons will provide valuable information in supporting U.S. Navy and other activities in the Arctic and the comparison with the models will yield improved understanding of the future evolution of the ice cover.

Tracking and predicting fine scale sea ice motion by constructing super-resolution images and fusing multiple satellite sensors

Remote Sensing

Use resolution enhancement techniques to create high spatial resolution sea ice motion fields from multiple satellite sources. These will be able to track fine-scale features of the sea ice, such as lead formation and ridging.

Aqua AMSR-E sea ice ice algorithm existing data products: Maintenance and minor refinement

Sea Ice

 The current AMSR-E sea ice products will be updated with refinements to add concentration uncertainty estimates and improve snow depth estimates.

Assess the magnitude of change in the Arctic using multi sensor satellite data

Remote Sensing

 Several data products will be combined to create a suite of cryospheric products over sea ice and Greenbelt to estimate sea ice concentration, ice surface temperature and albedo, Greenland temperature and albedo.

Operationally merged satellite visible/IR and passive microwave sea ice information for improved sea ice forecasts and ship routing

Sea Ice

 A collaboration with the Naval Research Lab in Stennis, Mississippi to combine passive microwave and visible/infrared data to create improved ice concentration fields to initialize the NRL's sea ice forecast model.

Research scientist

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Cryospheric Sciences Lab - Greenbelt, MD

August 2013 - Present

Research scientist

National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado - Boulder, CO

August 2003 - August 2013

Adjunct Assistant Professor

U.S. Naval Academy - Annapolis, MD

August 2001 - August 2003

Visiting scientist

U.S. National Ice Center - Suitland, MD

February 1999 - August 2001

American Geophysical Union

1999 - Present