Collaborative Research: Sampling the Ocean - Sea Ice Interaction in the Pacific Center of the Antarctic Dipole

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Researchers from two leading US oceanographic institutions are to further investigate the response of the upper ocean of the eastern Ross Sea gyre to the ocean- sea ice - atmosphere feedbacks within the Pacific sector of the so-called 'Antarctic Dipole' climate pattern (ADP). The ADP is an interannual mode of climate variability observed in both sea ice cover and sea surface temperature. This variability appears as an out-of-phase relationship between anomalies in the Pacific (e.g. Ross Sea) and Atlantic sectors of the southern ocean (e.g. Weddell Sea). The ADP may also be linked to climatological anomalies seen in the central/eastern Pacific (e.g. El Nino Southern Oscillation, ENSO). Activities to take place include the deployment of moorings in the region of the Pacific ADP center in the eastern Ross Sea gyre to resolve upper ocean (50~500m) stratification and velocity over timescales ranging from daily to the interannual. By deploying ice profiling sonar beacons at the top of the moorings, collocated measurements of sea-ice coverage and thickness will be made. During the deployment period, simultaneous German efforts will continue and extend complementary measurements in the Weddell gyre. The total measurement effort promises to increase our understanding of the southern ocean's role in both the hemispheric air-sea ice system, and the connections to global scale climate variability.