MRI: Development and Acquisition of Oceanographic Instrumentation to Enhance the Arctic Ocean Observing Network for the 2007-2009 International Polar Year Period and Beyond

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This Major Research Instrumentation project will acquire a suite of instruments that will support and expand oceanographic studies in the Arctic Ocean during the International Polar Year (IPY). Specifically, the instruments will enhance the oceanographic observing component of the nascent Arctic Observing Network. The instrumentation to be acquired includes: Moored Profilers; Upward-looking Sonars; Bottom Pressure Recorders; Ice-tethered Profilers; Polar Profiling Floats; and Arctic Winch Profilers. These instruments will be managed by the Physical Oceanographic Observing Laboratory (POOL) at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and will be available to the broader Arctic oceanography community. Data returned from these instruments will support studies of ocean processes, facilitate numerical model initialization and validation, and stimulate general interest in Arctic issues. Research and understanding that builds on these the data acquired by these instruments will lead to a better appreciation of the role of the Arctic in the Earth's climate system. An international partnership with projects in Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom) will provide broad spatial coverage of the Arctic Ocean during IPY. The addition of these instruments to the Arctic Observing Network, the data they obtain, and the knowledge and understanding that will result, will be an important contribution to the legacy of the International Polar Year. Data and information about the instruments and the science will be available at the "Polar Discovery" Web site (http://polardiscovery.whoi.edu), and communicated more broadly through a collaboration with the NSF-funded IPY education project "Live from the Poles" (ESI-0632219).