5 
PREFACE 
The Fifth Workshop on Baltic Sea Ice Climate was arranged in Hamburg, Germany. The hosts 
of the workshop were the Centre of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (ZMAW) at the 
University of Hamburg and the Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH), 
Germany. The workshop took place in the new building of ZMAW from 31, August-2, 
September, 2005. 
The meeting reviewed research results related to the Baltic Sea ice in past, present and future 
climate conditions and, for the first time, built a link to other seasonally ice covered regions in 
the world. In contrast to the previous workshops, which were mainly devoted to Baltic Sea ice 
modelling and long-term time series, the fifth workshop represented a more wider spread of 
topics. The presentations addressed topics such as lake ice optics, sea ice remote sensing, ice 
dynamics, sea ice climate variations addressing several centuries, sea ice-snow interactions, 
sea ice microstructure and brine release, numerical modelling of sea ice and different aspects 
of sea ice related biology. Most of the presentations were related to the Baltic Sea, but a 
considerable number of presentations were dealing with sea ice problems in the Barents Sea. 
Scientific advisory committee: 
Prof. Anders Omstedt, Gothenburg University, Sweden. 
Prof. Matti Leppàranta, University of Helsinki, Finland. 
Dr. Johanna Ikavalko, Finnish Institute of Marine Research, Finland. 
Prof. Kunio Shirasawa Sea Ice Research Laboratory, Hokkaido University, Japan [Okhotsk 
Sea] 
Prof. Hardy B. Granberg, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada [Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, Hudson Bay and Labrador Sea, Canada] 
Dr. Ingo Harms, ZMAW, University Hamburg, Germany [Barents Sea, Kara Sea] 
Dr. Bin Cheng, Finnish Institute of Marine Research, Helsinki [Bohai Sea] 
The proceedings from the 5 th Workshop on Baltic Sea Ice Climate, containing contributions 
from oral and poster presentations, were edited by Dr. Natalija Schmelzer and Dr. Corinna 
Schrum.