Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissance Surveys Coordination and Ocean Profiles
Abstract
This is a renewal proposal for major components of the Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissance Surveys (SIZRS), a multidisciplinary effort to track and understand the changing seasonal sea ice zone (SIZ) of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The two components are coordination of the overall program and the making of ocean property profiles during the surveys. Over next four years, SIZRS will continue to take advantage of the U.S. Coast Guard Arctic Domain Awareness (ADA) flights to make a suite of air, ice, and ocean observations across the Beaufort-Chukchi SIZ (BCSIZ) at monthly intervals through the spring-summer-fall seasons. The individual observations are made under separate grants that aside from this proposal for coordination and ocean profiles, include, Chickadel (aircraft remote sensing of ice with the VIRP instrument), Schweiger et al. (dropsonde and autonomous micro aircraft sampling of the atmosphere), Steele (upper ocean temperature time series with UpTempO drifting buoys), and Tschudi et al. (aircraft remote sensing of ice with the CULPIS-X instrument). SIZRS, like the ONR Arctic and Global Prediction Program, is motivated by the recent declines in sea ice extent. The SIZ is the region between maximum (winter) and minimum (summer) ice extent. It includes pack ice, open water, and the marginal ice zone (MIZ) where sea ice interacts with open water. Thus by definition, changes in the BCSIZ, where recent reductions in summer extent have been striking, are central to overall Arctic Ocean changes. There is a sense that these changes are a general consequence of global warming, but the mix of possible immediate causes is broad. In some instances, the ice edge aligns with bathymetry, suggesting an underlying role for deep ocean processes, but in recent years of record minimum ice extents, the BCISIZ has extended far beyond the shelf-break regions. Likely causes include increased fallwinter- spring temperatures, changing wind patterns that flush ice from the Arctic, and further reductions through ice-albedo feedback, in which reduced ice cover increases the fraction of solar radiation that enters the upper ocean to further enhance melting. The roles of clouds and warm Pacific Water inflow are certainly important. Our uncertainty about the mix of these processes can be traced in large part to inadequate observations and poorly validated models. SIZRS ocean property profiles are needed to learn how changes in geostrophic ocean circulation at the surface affect the ice dynamics and how changes in the stratification, the distribution of ocean heat and freshwater affect the sea ice thermodynamics. They are also needed to learn the amounts of heat getting into the mixed layer and to the ice from the deep ocean, by horizontal advection through Bering Strait, and through solar radiation. Under this proposal we will: (1) work with the U.S. Coast Guard and the SIZRS investigators to plan the SIZRS flights and ensure communication and cooperation among the SIZRS investigators, (2) serve as the main SIZRS point of contact for the U.S. Coast Guard and assist in obtaining Coast Guard approvals for use of the SIZRS instrument systems (3) make Aircraft eXpendable CTD (AXCTD) and Aircraft eXpendable Current Profiler (AXCP) deployments during the SIZRS flights (4) conduct ocean data analysis and modeling to understand the ocean’s role in the variability of the SIZ, and (5)maintain a SIZRS Web site and prepare the SIZRS Annual Reports.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512295
Entities
People
- James Morison
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Washington