Polar ocean observations: A critical gap in the observing system and its effect on environmental predictions from hours to a season

• Published in: Frontiers in Marine Science
• Main Authors: Smith, Gregory C., Allard, Richard, Babin, Marcel, Bertino, Laurent, Chevallier, Matthieu, Corlett, Gary, Crout, Julia, Davidson, Fraser J. M., Delille, Bruno, Gille, Sarah T., Hebert, David, Hyder, Patrick, Intrieri, Janet, Lagunas, José, Larnicol, Gilles, Kaminski, Thomas, Kater, Belinda, Kauker, Frank, Marec, Claudie, Mazloff, Matthew R., Metzger, E. Joseph, Mordy, Calvin W., O’Carroll, Anne, Olsen, Steffen M., Phelps, Michael W., Posey, Pamela, Prandi, Pierre, Rehm, Eric, Reid, Philip C., Rigor, Ignatius, Sandven, Stein, Shupe, Matthew, Swart, Sebastiaan, Smedstad, Ole Martin, Solomon, Amy, Storto, Andrea, Thibaut, Pierre, Toole, John M., Wood, Kevin R., Xie, Jiping, Yang, Qinghua, WWRP PPP Steering Group
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Frontiers Media 2019
• Subjects: Polar observations; Operational oceanography; Ocean data assimilation; Ocean modeling; Forecasting; Sea ice; Air-sea-ice fluxes; YOPP; Antarctic; Arctic; Davidson; Kater; Smedstad; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Ice Shelf
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1912/24569

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Smith, G. C., Allard, R., Babin, M., Bertino, L., Chevallier, M., Corlett, G., Crout, J., Davidson, F., Delille, B., Gille, S. T., Hebert, D., Hyder, P., Intrieri, J., Lagunas, J., Larnicol, G., Kaminski, T., Kater, B., Kauker, F., Marec, C., Mazloff, M., Metzger, E. J., Mordy, C., O'Carroll, A., Olsen, S. M., Phelps, M., Posey, P., Prandi, P., Rehm, E., Reid, P., Rigor, I., Sandven, S., Shupe, M., Swart, S., Smedstad, O. M., Solomon, A., Storto, A., Thibaut, P., Toole, J., Wood, K., Xie, J., Yang, Q., & WWRP PPP Steering Grp. Polar ocean observations: A critical gap in the observing system and its effect on environmental predictions from hours to a season. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, (2019): 429, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00429. There is a growing need for operational oceanographic predictions in both the Arctic and Antarctic polar regions. In the former, this is driven by a declining ice cover accompanied by an increase in maritime traffic and exploitation of marine resources. Oceanographic predictions in the Antarctic are also important, both to support Antarctic operations and also to help elucidate processes governing sea ice and ice shelf stability. However, a significant gap exists in the ocean observing system in polar regions, compared to most areas of the global ocean, hindering the reliability of ocean and sea ice forecasts. This gap can also be seen from the spread in ocean and sea ice reanalyses for polar regions which provide an estimate of their uncertainty. The reduced reliability of polar predictions may affect the quality of various applications including search and rescue, coupling with numerical weather and seasonal predictions, historical reconstructions (reanalysis), aquaculture and environmental management including environmental emergency response. Here, we outline the status of existing near-real time ocean observational efforts in ...