UpTempO buoys for understanding and prediction
Abstract
This is a renewal proposal for SIZRS-UpTempO, a project designed to better understand theinteractions between upper ocean warming a"nd sea ice retreat and advance in the Beaufort andChukchi Seas of the Arctic Ocean. ~SIZRS~ refers to Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissa"nceSurveys, a multidisciplinary effort to track and understand the changing seasonal sea ice zone(SIZ). Over the coming years, SIZ""RS will continue to take advantage of the U.S. Coast GuardArctic Domain Awareness flights to make a suite of air, ice, and ocean ob""servations across theSIZ at monthly intervals through the spring-summer-fall seasons.SIZRS, like the ONR Arctic and Global Predict""ion Program, is motivated by the recent declinesin sea ice extent. The SIZ is the region between maximum (winter) and minimum (summ""er) iceextent. It includes pack ice, open water, and the marginal ice zone where sea ice interacts withopen water. As sea ice retr""eats more in recent years, one result is an unprecedented warming ofthe upper Arctic Ocean. The role of this warming on sea ice ret""reat and advance has beenexplored using numerical models, but a lack of observational data limits our confidence in theseresults."" This proposal is designed to gather data on the summer warming and fall cooling of theupper Arctic Ocean, using UpTempO (Upper Tem""perature of the arctic Ocean) buoys. For thisproject, we will continue to build and deploy air-dropped UpTempO buoys. We will also""explore new technologies to both reduce costs and enhance winter survivability of our buoys.In particular, we seek to determine the" state of upper ocean heat in early summer (June/July) andthen follow its evolution through the following year. We will drop 2 buoy"s in July and two morein August, nominally along a standard SIZRS meridian (140~W). More buoys may be deployedannually in other mo"nths and in other areas if testing of new technologies is successful. We willcoordinate buoy logistics with other SIZRS and arctic" data programs, in order to place ourprogram into a larger framework.With these data, we seek to better understand temporal and sp""atial variability of upper oceantemperature in the SIZ, and how this impacts and is impacted by sea ice retreat and advance. Wepro"vide our data to users such as modelers and large-scale gridded SST data producers forvalidation activities. We also coordinate with SIZRS and other arctic scientists in studies thatrely on accurate upper ocean thermal data in the SIZ.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 09, 2017
- Source ID
- N000141712545
Entities
People
- Michael A. Steele
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Washington