| Summary: | This grant will work in conjunction with multiple national and international International Polar Year (IPY) projects to include: the Russian Central Arctic Ocean Complex Study (CAOCS), the Canadian Ocean Monitoring Experiment (COME) and the Canadian Arctic Margin Experiment (CAME) projects; the European Union Developing Arctic Modeling and Observing Capabilities of Long-term Environmental Studies (DAMOCLES) project; will use the facilities at the North Pole Environmental Observatory (NPEO), and be a part of the International Arctic Buoy Program (IABP). The research expands ongoing efforts to develop, test and field a set of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Ice-Tethered Profilers (ITPs): autonomous instruments that return high-vertical-resolution measurements of upper ~800 m ocean temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen beneath sea ice during all seasons at better than daily temporal resolution over a projected three year lifetime. The WHOI ITP will repeatedly sample the upper ocean water properties beneath the permanently ice-covered Arctic for up to a 3-year period (expected lifetime of an average multi-year ice floe) and telemeter those data to shore in near-real time. Data returned from these instruments will support studies of ocean processes, facilitate numerical model initialization and validation, and stimulate general interest in Arctic science issues. Research and understanding that builds on these observations will lead to better appreciation of the Arctic's role in the earth's climate system.
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