SMHI has a long tradition in sea ice research. During the last few years, one research focus has been on remote sensing of sea ice, using SAR and SSM/I imagery. SMHI took part in the Arctic Ocean expedition 2001 onboard i/b Oden, for example to make albedo measurements for comparisons with satellite measurements.

Another current research focus is sea ice climate, which is of great regional importance. The reason is that the national economies in the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea depend on year-round navigation. Therefore, it is important to understand how great the natural variability of the regional ice climate is. To this end, long time series of variables important for ice climate are being analyzed. To extend the time series backward in time, proxy data such as air temperature and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO index) are used.