An Array of Autonomous Ocean Flux Buoys to Directly Observe Turbulent Vertical Fluxes of Heat, Salt and Momentum as a Component of the Arctic Observing Network

Funds are provided to continue observations of turbulent fluxes, heat content, and current profiles in the ocean boundary layer below sea ice in the Beaufort Sea and Transpolar Drift regions of the Arctic Ocean. A series of ice-deployed Autonomous Ocean Flux Buoys (AOFB) will robustly measure heat, salt and momentum fluxes near the ocean-ice interface using direct, eddy-correlation techniques. Significant scientific and logistic leverage results from collaboratively deploying the AOFBs on the same ice floes as systems concurrently measuring the ocean temperature and salinity structure, the conductive fluxes through the ice cover, and at some stations, the bulk atmospheric and radiative fluxes, all of which are components of the Arctic Observing Network.