J-CAD (JAMSTEC Compact Arctic Drifter)

• Main Authors: Mombetsu Symposium, Takashi Kikuchi, Kiyoshi Hatakeyama, Koji Shimada, Takatoshi Takizawa (jamstec
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amundsen Basin; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Greenland; North Pole; amundsen basin; Denmark Strait; Fram Strait; Greenland Sea; Lomonosov Ridge; Nansen Basin
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.572.3262; http://www.jamstec.go.jp/arctic/Document/Archives/kikuchi/Mombetsu_02.pdf

In order to understand ocean currents and water properties under the multi-year ice of the Arctic Ocean, JAMSTEC developed a new drifting buoy, J-CAD (JAMSTEC Compact Arctic Drifter), in 1999, with the collaboration of METOCEAN Data System Limited. Using J-CAD, real-time and in-site oceanographical and meteorological data can be obtained from the Arctic multi-year ice zone. As a component of the North Pole Environmental Observatory (NPEO) Project, two J-CADs (J-CAD 1 and 3) have been installed near the North Pole in 2000 and 2001. J-CAD 1, which was installed on April 24 2000, drifted southward through the Amundsen Basin, the Arctic Mid Ocean Ridge, and the Fram Strait to the Greenland Sea. The data transmissions from J-CAD 1 finally ceased on April 6 2001 near the Denmark Strait in the southern part of the Greenland Sea. From a comparison of J-CAD data in the Arctic Ocean with the climatology, we can see 1) the salinization of surface layer, 2) the warming of Atlantic water, and 3) the weakening of halocline. Such temperature-salinity structures observed by J-CAD 1 in the Amundsen Basin are significantly different from the climatology in the same basin, but are similar to those in the Nansen Basin. Over the two main ridges, the Lomonosov Ridge and the Arctic Mid Ocean Ridge, there are frontal structures of water properties with barotropic ocean currents along the ridge. The results suggest that the bottom topography plays an important role not only in distributions of water masses but also in ocean current structures. In order to clarify the changes in the eastern Arctic Ocean, we are going to install J-CAD at the North Pole until 2004.