New Tool to Monitor Arctic Ocean
22.11.2007 - Logistics, Other
Scientists and engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have found a way to make continuous measurements of the ocean beneath the ice. As part of WHOI's contribution to the International Polar Year, an international team is working on spreading as many as 20 autonomous tools called ice-tethered profilers (ITPs) across the Arctic Ocean.
The sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean and extreme weather have always prevented observations in the Arctic by restraining the scientists' ability to introduce or retrieve instruments from the environment. The new autonomous ITP system enables scientists to collect data in real time by using the natural drift of the ice to their advantage. Anchored to ice floes, ITPs are carried along with the Arctic ice pack, all the while measuring the properties of the seawater below. Additional sensors that will be able to measure chlorophyll, particles, solar radiation and other properties are currently being developed for the ITPs in order to collect data that can provide evidence of changes in the ocean's ecosystems.
At the moment, though, one of the ITPs' main research targets is the Arctic "halocline". This layer of cold, salty water that forms in the Arctic Ocean acts as a barrier between the fresher and colder waters near the surface and the warmer waters found 300 to 500 meters down. Scientists aren't only concerned about the halocline disappearing, they also worry that warmer waters entering the Arctic Ocean from the Pacific Ocean could disrupt the formation of the halocline. Without the halocline, the deeper and warmer waters would raise the surface temperature and melt the sea ice cover from beneath.
Since 2004 several ITPs have already been deployed from in western Arctic Ocean north of Alaska, from the Ice Camp Borneo at 88°N and in the Beaufort Gyre. Some have been retrieved in order to make some engineering improvements, while others are fully operational and have been sending data back to shore daily along their journey.
