Stefan Kern was born in Moers, Germany, on February 10, 1970. He studied Meteorology at the University of Hannover and received the Diploma degree (Dipl. Met.) in 09/1997. His Diploma thesis focused on a comparison of VHF-RADAR observations of large-scale vertical motions in the troposphere and the lower stratosphere with coincident radiosonde measurements.  In 1998, he joined the Institute of Environmental Physics of the University of Bremen where he worked in the EU-funded project SEA LION on sea ice concentration retrieval using microwave radiometry (SSM/I) and radiative transfer modeling. He received his PhD degree (Dr. rer. nat.) from the Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering of the University of Bremen in 02/2001.  Since 2001 he is with the Remote Sensing Division of the Institute of Oceanography of the University of Hamburg.

During his studies of meteorology in Hannover Stefan Kern was involved in studies of the hydrolocigal cycle and teached students in basic meteorological measurement techniques and error handling.

He was involved in the EU-funded project "Sea ice in the Antarctic linked with ocean-atmosphere forcing" (see SEA LION algorithm, SEA LION project website). This project dealt with a combination of efforts in numerical modelling of the Southern Ocean and its sea-ice cover and in improving the analysis of remote sensing data of Antarctic sea ice with the aim to better understand the sea ice acting in response of changes in oceanic and atmospheric conditions. His part in this study was to develop sea-ice concentration retrieval algorithm based on data of the microwave radiometer Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) providing ice concentration at a finer resolution than common algorithms. This was realized using the 85GHz channels of the SSM/I together with radiative transfer modelling, which turned out to be necessary due to the large weather influence at this frequency. Apart from that he was involved with the retrieval of atmospheric parameters such as the columnar water vapour and the cloud liquid water from remote sensing data. In March/April 1999 he stayed as a visiting scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), Ice Charting and Remote Sensing Department, conducting research on radiative transfer over sea ice. From 2001 to 2003 he was involved in the EU-funded project MARine SAR Analyses and Interpretation System (MARSAIS). This project dealt with the development of a user-friendly generic SAR-data analysis tool prototype to demonstrate the capabilities of SAR data for oceanic application. His part in this project was to develop a routine to analyse SAR signatures of oceanic internal waves and frontal features in order to obtain information about the ocean interior, to find potential end-users for MARSAIS in Germany, and to help with SAR data processing. He continued his research in sea-ice remote sensing using SSM/I and AMSR-E data, as well as active microwave, infrared and visible remote sensing data. Since 2004 he has been involved in a DFG-project dealing with a long-term study of polynyas and the associated ice production and brine release in the Southern Ocean. One outcome of this project is a semi-operational provision of polynya distribution maps for the Kara Sea, Hudson Bay (both Arctic) and the Ross Sea (Antarctic)

Since 2001 he has been involved in the "Sonderforschungsbereich 512" dealing with a better understanding of the climate of the northern North-Atlantic, in particular with the interaction of sea ice in the GIN Sea, Barents Sea and Fram Strait with ocean and atmosphere. One example of this topic is the estimation and interpretation of the sea-ice volume flux through Fram Strait using ICESat data.

He joined two research cruises with the German Research Icebreaker Polarstern into the ARCTIC in March/April 2003 (ARKXIX/1) during the Winter ARctic Polynya Study (WARPS) and the CRYOsat Validation EXperiment (CRYOVEX), and from August-October 2007 (ARKXXII/2) during SPACE under the umbrella of the international polar year (IPY). During these cruises he carried out helicopter-based multi-frequency, multi-polarization scatterometer measurements over sea ice with the Multi³Scat sensor (2003: HELISCAT) of the Institut of Oceanography, and was involved in routine daily sea-ice observations. Analysis of the HELISCAT data from 2003 led to a new empirical approach to estimate the thickness of thin ice from sea-ice radar backscatter measurements. In 2006, the HELISCAT has been re-configured becoming the Multi³Scat. It was used during ARKXXII/2 with the focus on improved thin ice identification and thickness retrieval as well as melt-pond cover fraction mapping. Finally, the Multi³Scat sensor was used recently (Dec. 2007 / Jan. 2008) in the Austrian Alps to obtain multi-frequency, multi-polarization radar backscatter data of the snow cover at different heights above sea level as part of the preparation of CoRe H2O.

Please take a look at the gallery of images taken during ARKXIX/1 in 2003 below (if you click on the image a larger one will pop up in a new window). Don't hesitate to contact me in case you want some original sized images.