Design and Initialization of an Ice-tethered Array Contributing to the Arctic Observing Network

This is a proposal to continue development and deployment in the Arctic Ocean of new ice-tethered profiling (ITP) buoys that are an automated profiling CTD instrument capable of returning daily high-vertical-resolution measurements of the upper 800 m ocean underneath sea-ice during all seasons over an approximately 3-year life time. The proposal is collaborative on an international scale and the plan is to eventually extend the scope of this work to involve up to 17 IPTs. Ideally they would be deployed in conjunction with a suite of other automated instruments.

This new source of high-vertical-resolution CTD data from all seasons and from multiple years will increase knowledge of the state and variability of the Arctic Ocean by an unprecedented amount. The publicly available data from the proposed ITPs will provide the basis for both process studies and model validation/assimilation research, work that will ultimately lead to better understanding of the Arctic Ocean's role in global climate change.

In addition, the project will, in consultation with the polar research community, use this information to develop a plan for establishing and maintaining ITPs within a full array of IBO's contributing to a sustained Arctic Ocean observing system, as was discussed and recommended by participants of the international workshop Arctic Observing Based on Ice-Tethered Platforms.