Open Meeting Announcement
North Pole Environmental Observatory in IPY and the Future
American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2007 Fall Meeting
San Francisco, California
When: Tuesday, 11 December 2007, 7:30 to 9:00 p.m.
Where: Marriott Hotel, Sierra A (5th floor)
For further information about the meeting, please contact:
James Morison
Polar Science Center
Applied Physics Laboratory
University of Washington
E-mail: morison [at] apl.washington.edu
An informal meeting about the North Pole Environmental Observatory
(NPEO) and marine observatories in general will be held in San
Francisco, California, on Tuesday, 11 December 2007, in conjunction with
the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting. The meeting will take
place from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. at the Arctic Community Meeting Space in
Sierra A on the 5th floor of the San Francisco Marriott Hotel (toward
the end of the Cryosphere Reception in the same hotel).
The NSF-funded NPEO installs an automated scientific drifting station in
the central Arctic Ocean, carries out airborne hydrographic surveys, and
maintains a deep ocean mooring near the North Pole. Together these
activities provide long-term, wide-area observations of marine arctic
characteristics such as salinity of seawater and thickness and
temperature of the ice cover.
For the International Polar Year in 2007-2008, the NPEO was augmented to
provide a more extensive airborne hydrographic survey, more buoy
deployments, and increased outreach activities. Unfortunately, in 2007
the sea ice runway at the Russian "Borneo" base camp broke up, limiting
the equipment and personnel that could be moved to the ice and requiring
scaling back of operations. An expanded hydrographic survey was
completed and the automated drifting station was installed, but the NPEO
mooring recovery had to be postponed to 2008. While the NPEO
observations from 2000 to 2006 show a return toward the anticyclonic
circulation pattern similar to pre-1990s conditions, the 2007
observations suggest that since 2006, Atlantic-derived, higher salinity
water has advanced over the pole and Atlantic water temperatures
increased once again as in the 1990s. The connection is not clear, but
it is speculated that these changes are related to conditions that
caused a record minimum ice extent in 2007.
In 2008 NPEO will carry out the expanded IPY program including a
cooperative effort with the Beaufort Gyre Exploratory Program (BGEP) to
make springtime hydrographic measurements corresponding to the BGEP
summertime observations in the Beaufort Sea. The goal of this element
will be to observe seasonal variations in ocean conditions. The
logistics plan for the Beaufort work is still developing. Current
planning is to make greater use of Russian heavy aircraft in the North
Pole deployment. Buoy deployment plans will depend on the drift of the
present constellation of buoys.
The meeting will include informal discussions of the 2007 NPEO results
and the 2008 deployment plans and related science activities. Meeting
organizers would also like to begin discussion of the next generation of
marine observatories. Investigators involved or interested in the NPEO
program or the future of marine observatories in general are encouraged
to attend. Available data from past NPEO observations will be described
and inquiries about potential utilization of the observatory as a
resource for research in the central Arctic Ocean are welcome.
For further information about the NPEO meeting at AGU, please contact:
Jamie Morison
Polar Science Center
Applied Physics Laboratory
University of Washington
E-mail: morison [at] apl.washington.edu