Ocean Profile Measurements During the Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissance Surveys

• Main Author: Morison, James
• Other Authors: WASHINGTON UNIV SEATTLE POLAR SCIENCE CENTER
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; *SEA ICE; ATMOSPHERES; OCEANS; SEASONAL VARIATIONS; SIZRS(SEASONAL ICE ZONE RECONNAISSANCE SURVEYS); SIZ(SEA ICE ZONE); Arctic; Chukchi Sea; Chukchi; Ice; permafrost; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA601193; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA601193

The overarching objectives for SIZRS are to determine seasonal variations in air-ice-ocean characteristics across the BCSIZ extending over several years and for a variety of SIZ conditions, investigate and test hypotheses about the physical processes that occur within the BCSIZ that require data from all components of SIZRS, and improve predictive models of the SIZ through model validation and through the determination of observing system requirements. For the ocean profiles component of SIZRS, our objective is to determine variations in ocean characteristics across the BCSIZ extending over several years and for a wide variety of SIZ conditions. This grant is part of the Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissance Surveys (SIZRS) program of repeated ocean, ice, and atmospheric measurements across the Beaufort-Chukchi sea seasonal sea ice zone (SIZ) utilizing US Coast Guard Arctic Domain Awareness (ADA) flights of opportunity. This report covers our grant to make ocean temperature, salinity, velocity and mixing profile measurements across the SIZ. Our long-term goal is to track and understand the interplay among the ice, atmosphere, and ocean contributing to the rapid decline in summer ice extent that has occurred in recent years. The SIZ is the region between maximum winter sea ice extent and minimum summer sea ice extent. As such, it contains the full range of positions of the marginal ice zone (MIZ) where sea ice interacts with open water.