Stefan Hendricks

Dr. Stefan Hendricks works as a Senior Scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, specializing in Sea Ice Physics within the Climate Sciences division. His primary research focuses on the global sea ice mass balance using satellite remote sensing, particularly with CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3 radar altimetry systems.

• Key Responsibilities: Lead PI for CryoSat-2 thematic sea ice products (Cryo-TEMPO), Advisor for Sentinel-3 and future CRISTAL missions, Developer of the Python-based sea ice radar altimetry toolbox (pysiral)
• Expertise: Satellite radar altimetry, Algorithm development, Data validation, Arctic/Antarctic ice dynamics

His research involves extensive algorithm development for converting altimeter waveforms into sea ice thickness metrics, fieldwork participation in polar expeditions, and integration of multi-sensor data for climate data records. Stefan maintains active collaborations with international institutions and contributes to ESA projects like SIN’XS.

Recent publications highlight innovations in FMCW radar deconvolution techniques, sub-ice platelet layer mapping, and decadal-scale sea ice classification using machine learning. He also leads efforts in creating drift-aware sea ice thickness maps and validating SMOS-derived Antarctic ice datasets.