Abstracts
SEARCH Open Science Meeting
October 27, 2003
Seattle, Washington, USA
The Swedish Icebreaker Oden as a Research Platform: The Arctic Ocean Experiment 2001
Michael Tjernström1, Caroline Leck2
1Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Arrhenius lab., 106 91 Stockholm, Stockholm , SE-106 91, Sweden, Phone 46-816-3110, Fax 46-815-7185, michaelt@misu.su.se
2Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Arrhenius lab., 106 91 Stockholm, Stockholm , SE-106 91, Sweden, Phone 46-816-4354, Fax 46-815-9295, lina@misu.su.se
Many studies indicate that the climate sensitivity of the Arctic is larger than anywhere else on the Earth. Studies with Global Climate Models (GCM) estimate the warming of the Arctic to be ~ 2-3 time larger than the global average. At the same time, the same GCM models disagree more on the Arctic warming than anywhere else on the Earth, ranging from a factor of < 1 to a factor of 5 times the global average. We believe that a large part of this extra Arctic uncertainty derives from inadequate descriptions of vital climate processes that are specific to the Arctic. These so-called parameterizations are necessary to describe processes occurring on a spatial and/or temporal scale much smaller that can be explicitly resolved in a GCM. The specific relationships between these processes and the resolved scale atmosphere are always empirical to some degree. The problem is that most of the experimental evidence for such descriptions comes from field experiments in the mid-latitudes and the tropics, and often from land. Due to the very special features of the Arctic Ocean, many such results may be invalid in an Arctic setting, and the only remedy to this dilemma is field experiments in the Arctic.
Fieldwork in the central Arctic, however, is much more complicated than at many other locations. Even getting there requires special attention. Much of the work has to be done on ice that is drifting and may break up at any point in time and the structure of the ice restricts the kind of installations that can be erected. The risk of loosing or damaging instrumentation makes one think twice about what is put up on the ice. And even if all this is successful the Arctic environment remains quite hostile. It is difficult to move about on the ice and the conditions are quite hostile to modern electronics; during winter, it can become very cold and in summer, everything is very humid. Success thus requires logistics support of an unusual character.
The Arctic Ocean Experiment 2001 (AOE-2001) will be described. This experiment was launched on the Swedish icebreaker Oden to take measurements of boundary-layer dynamics, atmospheric chemistry, aerosol chemistry/physics to help understand the processes that govern cloud formation and cloud characteristics in the summer central Arctic. Complementary observations of marine biology where also performed to investigate links between biological activity in the ice and in open leads and the formation of aerosols. Most of the atmospheric chemistry and aerosol measurements and much the marine biology work was performed in laboratories onboard, either in the permanent laboratory on the foredeck, or in temporary container-based laboratories. Also some of the meteorological measurements were performed onboard: a wind profiler, a cloud radar, a scanning passive microwave radiometer and radiosundings and regular weather station data. Other meteorological measurements are to severely disturbed by the Oden itself, and had to be deployed in the ice. This was done during a three-week ice drift; two sodar systems, a mast with turbulence flux and wind and temperature profile instruments, tethered soundings and two remote Integrated Surface Flux Facility stations. This undertaking would not have possible without access to a platform like Oden and the logistical support by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat and by the crew of Oden.
Abstract Categories: Science Management, Coordination, and Resources
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