The field experiment DAMOCLES 2007 (Hamburg Arctic Ocean Buoy Drift Experiment DAMOCLES 2007-2008) consisted of the deployment and tracking of an array of 16 drifting autonomous buoys in the Central Arctic Ocean. The buoys were deployed in a quadratic array with 400 kilometres side length in the Siberian sector of the Central Arctic Ocean in April 2007. While drifting towards Fram Strait the buoys delivered at approximately 1-hourly time intervalls position, sea level pressure and temperature for several months with the last buoy transmitting until January 2008. The aim of the experiment was to study the Atmosphere-Ice-Ocean interaction, especially the impact of cyclones on the formation and transport of sea ice. DAMOCLES 2007 and DAMOCLES 2008 are a contribution to European integrated project DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modeling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies) which is funded by the European Union. DAMOCLES is a contribution to IPY 2007-2008 (International Polar Year).

The field experiment DAMOCLES 2008 (Hamburg Arctic Ocean Buoy Drift Experiment DAMOCLES 2008-2009) consisted of the deployment and tracking of 9 drifting autonomous ice buoys in the Arctic Ocean. Seven buoys were deployed in the Canadian sector of the Arctic Ocean in late April 2008. Two more buoys were deployed in the Beaufort Sea and in the Laptev Sea in September and October 2008. The platforms report position, atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity, wind speed and ice temperature at 3-hourly time steps. The last two buoys additionally report wind direction. The aim of the experiment was to study the Atmosphere-Ice-Ocean interaction, especially the impact of cyclones on the formation and transport of sea ice. DAMOCLES 2008 and its predecessor DAMOCLES 2007 are a contribution to European integrated project DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modeling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies) which is funded by the European Union. DAMOCLES is a contribution to IPY 2007-2008 (International Polar Year).

The assessment of climate change impacts on the North Sea and the overlying atmosphere requires reliable reference data in order to identify change and impacts against a highly variable background with time scales from hours to multi-decadal. Therefore, in the frame work of the research programme "KLIWAS - Impacts of climate change on waterways and navigation - Searching for options of adaptation" of the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS), a new climatology was developed in a close co-operation of the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), the German Meteorological Service (DWD) and the Integrated Climate Data Center (ICDC) of the University Hamburg. All available oceanographic in-situ data for temperature and salinity have been carefully checked for quality before further processing, while the atmospheric data had already been quality controlled by the DWD. More than 13 million temperature and 12 million salinity (starting in 1890) as well as more than 19 million atmospheric data (air temperature, dew point and air pressure starting in 1950) have been processed. Monthly averages have been created on specified grids for the ocean and atmosphere. For the first time oceanographic and meteorological climatologies are provided on a coordinated grid. The climatological data set is supposed to be growing with time and new data can be implemented as they are collected. it is planned to add additional parameters in future. The climatologies will be used to analyse the temporal and spatial variability in the North Sea area and deduce long-term trends. Additional the data sets will be needed for the validation of regional climate scenarios. The products are publicly available at the ICDC portal ( http://icdc.cen.uni-hamburg.de/1/projekte/knsc.html ).

The field experiment ARKTIS 1991 was an expedition planned by meteorologists of the Collaborative Research Centre 318 entitled "Climatically relevant processes in the system ocean-atmosphere-ice" which is funded by the German Research Foundation and established at the University of Hamburg. The expedition took place in the Norwegian Sea between Northern Norway, Bear Island and Jan Mayen during the period 17 February until 15 March 1991. The main aim of the experiment was the investigation of cold air outbreaks from the surrounding Arctic ice sheets. During such weather episodes the air mass coming from the ice is rapidly modified over the water due to the contrasts in temperature, heat conduction, humidity and roughness between ice and water. This leads to the formation of a "new" boundary layer. Its depth, mean temperature and moisture increases with increasing distance from the ice edge mainly due to sensible and latent heat supply from the ocean. The investigations of cold air outbreaks and Arctic stratus by scientists of the Collaborative Research Centre 318 began already three years before with the field experiment ARKTIS 1988 which took place in the area west of Spitsbergen in May 1988. ARKTIS 1991 is a continuation of this work under winterly weather conditions. ARKTIS 1991 was followed by the experiment ARKTIS 1993. As in ARKTIS 1988 the research vessel Valdivia and the two research aircraft FALCON-20 of the DLR at Oberpfaffenhofen and DO-128 of the TU Braunschweig were at our disposal. Radiosonde measurements were performed on board of RV Valdivia and on Bear Island.

The expedition ARKTIS 1988 was initiated and directed by the Collaborative Research Centre 318 of the German Research Foundation entitled "Climatically relevant proceses in the system ocean-atmosphere-ice" and established at the University of Hamburg. The field experiment took place in the Fram Strait in the area straddling the ice margin west of Spitsbergen during the period from 4 to 26 May 1988. The experimental concept for the investigation of boundary layer modification and certain cloud structures in cases of off-ice and on-ice air flows was to maneuver one ship, the research icebreaker POLARSTERN, about 100 km into the ice and to operate with a second ship, the research vessel VALDIVIA, in the open water near the ice edge. Several aircraft operating from the airport at Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen were intended to measure the mean structures, variances and covariances at different distances from the ice edge. ARKTIS 1988 was followed by the two experiments ARKTIS 1991 and ARKTIS 1993.

The field experiment ARKTIS 1993 was the third one in a series of experiments in the Arctic region performed by a group of climate researchers from Hamburg. The campaign took place in the Greenland Sea west of Spitsbergen from 1 to 25 March 1993. The preceding experiments were ARKTIS 1988 (5 - 25 May 1988) in the same geographic region and ARKTIS 1991 (20 February - 13 March 1991) located between North Norway and Bear Island. The main objective of ARKTIS 1993 was the investigation of cold air outbreaks from the Arctic sea ice onto the open water, in this case the West Spitsbergen current. To get a concise picture of all stages of boundary layer modification in cold air outbreaks a wide variety of measurement platforms was employed. Three reseach vessels (Polarstern, Valdivia, Prof. Multanovsky) operated in the experimental area providing surface observations and radiosonde data. Aerological data was also collected at three land stations (Bear Island, Danmarkshavn, Ny Alesund) which intensified their operational radiosonde program. Most essential measurement were taken by the research aircraft Falcon and DO-128 which took profiles and cross sections within the air flow. Eleven flight missions were performed.

The FRAMZY 2008 experiment aimed at the measurement of the sea ice drift in the Fram Strait and its relation to the atmospheric forcing, primarily to that by cyclones. FRAMZY 2008 was the fourth experiment with this objective and followed the FRAMZY experiments in 1999, 2002 and 2007. On 20 January 2008, seven CALIB (Compact Air-Launch Ice Buoys) buoys were deployed from a transport aircraft in a regular array of 200 km by 100 km size centered at 82.6¿N, 1.0¿E in the northern part of Fram Strait. Buoys measured autonomously air pressure, temperature and position at approximately one-hourly intervals and transmitted the data via the Argos satellite system. The lifetime of the buoys before they were lost at the ice edge or due to the breaking of ice was between 7 and 39 days (final date 28 February 2008). The southernmost position reached by a buoy after 39 days was 76.2¿N, -12.0¿E, corresponding to an average drift speed of 16.9 km per day or 0.20 ms-1. During the FRAMZY 2008 period eight cyclones passed through Fram Strait. The paper presents details of the ice motion and the atmospheric conditions. In the appendix 12-hourly maps of sea-level pressure and surface air temperature as analysed by the ECMWF, daily maps of ice concentration and daily NOAA satellite images are presented.

The field drift buoys experiment FRAMZY 2009 consisted of the deployment and tracking of an array of 7 drifting autonomous buoys, of which one did not transmit values. The experiment aimed at the measurement of the sea ice drift in the Fram Strait and its relation to the atmospheric forcing, primarily to that by cyclones. The buoys were deployed in October 2009 in the Fram Strait region and sampled data until February 2010. FRAMZY 2009 was the last one in a series of five field experiments (1999,2002,2007,2008) carried out in the frame of the Collaborative Research Centre 512 (Cyclones and the North Atlantic Climate System) funded by the German Science Foundation.