Arctic Sea Ice Working Group Steering Committee
Ioanna Merkouiadi, Chair
Ioanna Merkouriadi is senior researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Her research focuses on the role of snow in the sea ice system, combining field observations, numerical modeling, and remote sensing to better understand snow and sea ice interactions and their impact on Arctic climate processes. She has contributed to the development of snow-on-sea-ice models and to improving their representation in climate models, including work on coupled snow–sea ice systems and physics-guided machine learning approaches. Her work aims to reduce uncertainties in sea ice projections and enhance the integration of models and observations for Arctic climate research.
Melinda Webster, Chair Emeritus
Dr. Webster is a research scientist who studies the role of snow and sea ice in a changing climate through remote sensing, in situ observations, and modeling. The scope of her work centers on sea ice and atmosphere-snow-ice-ocean-ecosystem interactions across spatial and temporal scales, from localized event-driven processes to regional interdecadal trends. She received her Ph.D. in Oceanography with a focus on Arctic sea ice from the University of Washington. Since then, Dr. Webster has participated in 12+ polar expeditions. She became a civil servant at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in 2017, where she investigated physical processes and long-term trends in snow and sea-ice conditions using remote sensing techniques. In 2019, Dr. Webster joined the University of Alaska Fairbanks, shifting her focus towards integrating observations more comprehensively with climate modeling and mentoring students. She’s actively engaged with broader communities through public service and outreach. She serves as chair of the Climate and Cryosphere Arctic Sea Ice Working Group, co-lead for the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Commission’s Sea Ice Collaboration Team, and participates in several other professional societies. Dr. Webster thoroughly enjoys studying snow, sea ice, and climate, and getting opportunities to share her enthusiasm for polar science with anyone who asks.
Walt Meier
Walt Meier is a senior research scientist at NSIDC. His primary role is supporting the NASA Snow and Ice Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) at NSIDC as the DAAC scientist. In this role he provides scientific support to all NASA products at the NSIDC DAAC. His research focus is on sea ice remote sensing, particularly using passive microwave data, and tracking Arctic climate change.