  The coupling of weather, sea-ice, ocean, and wave forecasting systems has
been a long-standing research focus to improve Arctic forecasting system and
their realism and is also a priority of international initiatives such as the
WMO research project PCAPS. The goal of the Svalbard Marginal Ice Zone 2024
Campaign was to observe and better understand the complex interplay between
atmosphere, waves, and sea-ice in the winter Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) in order
to advance the predictive skill of coupled Arctic forecasting systems. The main
objective has been to set up a network of observations with a spatial
distribution that allows for a representative comparison between in situ
observations and gridded model data. The observed variables include air and
surface temperature, sea-ice drift, and wave energy spectra. With the support
of the Norwegian Coast Guard, we participated in the research cruise with KV
Svalbard from 4. April - 21.April 2024. In total 34 buoys were deployed in the
Marginal Ice Zone north of the Svalbard Archipelago. The first part of the
report describes the instruments and their calibration (Section 2), and the
second part briefly describes the weather, sea ice, and wave conditions during
the campaign.
