FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFROM:Sandra Hines(206) 543-2580[email protected]DATE: April 23, 2001
Instruments anchored by more than 2 1/2 miles of cable to the seafloor at the North Pole should give year-round information about layers of water that help determine how thick -- or thin -- the ice is in the Arctic, according to scientists returning last week from a two-week ice camp.
The only previous such mooring at the North Pole was in place for only 1 1/2 months in 1979 before it was retrieved.
The mooring is new this year to the North Pole Environmental Observatory. The observatory, run by the University of Washington and sponsored by the National Science Foundation, is an unmanned suite of instruments gathering weather, ice and ocean information. Along with installing the mooring during the ice camp April 2-15, scientists also deployed drifting buoys and used a plane capable of landing on the ice to hopscotch across 300 miles of ice taking ocean readings.
This is the second year of a 5-year, $3.9 million project funded by NSF to take the year-round pulse of the Arctic Ocean and learn how the world's northernmost sea helps regulate global climate. Because the North Pole is so far from shore facilities, past measurements have only been made sporadically from ships, submarines and isolated drifting buoys, according to James Morison, leader of the observatory and an oceanographer with the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory.
Researchers from the University of Washington, Oregon State University, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle and the Japanese Marine Science and Technology Center worked at the camp. Temperatures ranged below -40 F the whole first week, bad weather delayed the start of projects, solar storms disrupted radio communications and the first air strip developed a 2-foot-wide crack at one point. Still the work was accomplished, Morison says, with the biggest disappointment being that one of the two ice-mass buoys had an instrument that refused to work so it was not left in the ice.
Mooring new this year:
The 4 1/2 tons of gear for the mooring included more than a dozen instruments and enough cable to anchor the mooring in 4,100 meters (2.6 miles) of ocean. The instruments will store their data for retrieval when scientists return next year.
Among other things, instruments will monitor the condition of the upper 400 meters (1,300 feet) of the ocean. Knut Aagaard, oceanographer with the UW's Applied Physics Laboratory, says scientists want to know more about the halocline, a layer of frigid water that separates the sea ice from a slightly deeper layer of water that is warm enough to melt the ice and keep it from becoming as thick as usual each winter.
Measurements made as part of the North Pole Environmental Observatory last year, for instance, confirmed that the thickness of the halocline continues to be less than in the past and that the layer of warm waters appears to be warmer by a degree than it was 20 years ago.
2001 is second year for drifting buoys:
Five buoys similar to those used last year were placed on the ice at the North Pole and will travel with the ice pack gathering information about ice thickness, the upper ocean, weather and the heat reaching the ice from the sun and atmosphere.
The data can be used in conjunction with satellite and broader sets of meteorological data, according to Jim Overland, oceanographer with NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. Climate modelers, in particular, are eager to have such "ground truth" information.
This year's hydrographic survey conducted toward Alaska:
The third component of the North Pole Environmental Observatory program was collecting data from five places starting at the pole and traveling 300 miles toward Alaska. Using a small plane, scientists landed on the ice and drilled a hole to lower instruments into the ocean.
The information can be used to plot a long vertical slice of the ocean that compares measurements over a wide area. According to Michael Steele, oceanographer with the UW's Applied Physics Laboratory and Kelly Falkner, oceanographer with Oregon State University, scientists are interested in such things as the meandering border where waters from the Atlantic and Pacific meet and begin mixing, a boundary that appears to have shifted dramatically in the late '80s and early '90s.
Last year's survey from the North Pole toward Canada was the first-ever conducted in that area of the Arctic Ocean because the ice there is the Arctic's thickest, most broken up and most difficult to travel through or on.
Camp with three tents:
Eleven scientists, engineers and aircrew members took turns staying at the ice camp. The camp included three tents -- the largest two being 8 by 25 feet -- for work, sleeping, kitchen and command center. An unheated pyramid tent served as the outhouse.
The station, served by Twin Otter aircraft able to land on the ice, was approximately 3 1/2 hours from Alert on Canada's Ellesmere Island, the closest human outpost to the North Pole.
Staging the ice camp from Alert was made possible with the cooperation and support from the Defence Research Establishment Atlantic, part of the Canadian Department of National Defence, and its staff at the Alert station. U.S. support included help from the 109th Airlift Wing, New York Air National Guard.
###
Learn more about ice camp: http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/
###
For more information-- James Morison, lead of NSF's North Pole Environmental Observatory and University of Washington oceanographer, 206-543-1394, 206-543-6613, [email protected]-- Michael Ledbetter, Arctic System Sciences Program manager, National Science Foundation, (703) 292-8029, [email protected]
Mooring-- Knut Aagaard -- principal investigator for the mooring project and University of Washington oceanographer, 206-543-8942, [email protected]-- Rebecca Woodgate, University of Washington oceanographer, 206-221-3268, [email protected]-- Richard Moritz, principal investigator concerned with ice thickness and University of Washington oceanographer, 206-543-8023, [email protected]
Drifting buoys-- Jim Overland, principal investigator for U.S. drifting buoys and oceanographer with NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, 206-526-6795, [email protected]-- Takatoshi Takizawa, principal investigator, Japanese Marine Science and Technology Center,81 468 67 5571, [email protected]
Hydrographic survey-- Kelly Falkner, one of the principal investigators for the hydrographic survey and Oregon State University oceanographer, 541-737-3625, [email protected]-- Michael Steele, one of the principal investigator for the hydrographic survey and University of Washington oceanographer, 206-543-6586, 206-543-6613, [email protected]
###
Images for news media use
North Pole Environmental Observatory: Ice camp April 2-15, 2001Image of tent, plane and peoplehttp://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/images/Camp-plane.jpg
Planes able to land on the ice ferried supplies, equipment and people to the North Pole Environmental Observatory during an ice camp April 2-15. The command-center/kitchen tent was one of three main tents erected at the camp. The sled behind the snowmobile carries the top of one of the specialized buoys that was placed in the ice to measure conditions at the Pole.
Photo credit: Ron Verrall, Defence Research Establishment Atlantic (Defence with "c" is correct)
###
North Pole Environmental Observatory: Ice camp April 2-15, 2001Image of man lowering instruments into Arctic Oceanhttp://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/images/Hydro-survey.jpg
The University of Washington's James Morison, leader of the North Pole Environmental Observatory, works inside a makeshift tent steadying water sample bottles as they are lowered into the Arctic Ocean through a hole in the ice.
Photo credit: Kelly Falkner, Oregon State University
###
North Pole Environmental Observatory: Ice camp April 2-15, 2001Map showing location of ice camphttp://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/images/northpoles.jpg
The ice camp April 2-15, conducted as part of the North Pole Environmental Observatory project, was established within 30 miles of the North Pole.
Graphic credit: University of Washington
###
RSS
