Gunnar Spreen

Gunnar Spreen (Member, IEEE) received the M.Sc. degree in physics (Diplomphysiker) and the Ph.D. degree in oceanography from the University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, in 2004 and 2008, respectively. He works on satellite remote sensing of Polar Regions with a focus on monitoring changes of sea ice (extent, mass, and dynamics) and on understanding underlying climate processes. Satellite measurements are validated using ground-based and airborne field observations, recently in particular from the 2019/2020 Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of the Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition, for which he serves on the project board and coordinates the remote sensing activities. He was a Research Scientist with the Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway, and a Post-Doctoral Scholar with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. He is currently the Head of the Research Group “Remote Sensing of Polar Regions,” Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany. His work addresses the development of new retrievals for sea ice parameters, such as leads and ice type from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and microwave radiometer data as well as snow on sea ice.