There is a large spread in climate model simulations of current and future sea-ice and ice sheets mass budgets, especially in the Antarctic. One of the reasons is the oversimplified representation of snow. The project aims at improving the climate model simulation of the mass and surface energy budgets of Antarctic sea-ice and ice sheet and Arctic sea-ice by improving the model representation of snow. Unique datasets of drone- and surface-based observations obtained from recent Antarctic sea-ice and continental ice campaigns as well as observations from the MOSAiC Arctic expedition will be used to develop and validate state-of-the-art snow/ice models. The focus will be the improvement of the modeled snow reflectivity and fine-scale snow spatial variability consistently on both Arctic and Antarctic. These enhancements will improve the sea-ice forecast and the estimation of the global effects of polar climate changes, including sea-level rise.

2025

2028