Using artificial intelligence to automate sea-ice charting

Reliable maps of sea-ice conditions and forecasts are of vital importance for maritime safety, safe navigation and planning. The continued retreating and thinning of Arctic sea ice calls for a more effective way of producing detailed and timely ice information--which is where artificial intelligence comes in. Manual ice-charting from multi-sensor satellite data has been used for years, but it is time-consuming because of the vast area of the Arctic Ocean. In order to provide relevant ice data, there is a need for automated ice observations from satellite data, to integrate into ice forecast models. In response to this, the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) and Technical University of Denmark have initiated the project Automated Sea Ice Products (ASIP) – funded by the Innovation Fund Denmark.