Arctic water isotope cycle processes and patterns in the Central Arctic during an International Arctic Drift Expedition (MOSAiC)

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The Arctic is experiencing dramatic changes that are impacting land and ocean environments in the north and in regions that include the entirety of the US, Europe and Scandinavia. Changes in the Arctic are even being felt in tropical regions through increased drought frequency and the intensity of water shortages. These changes are continuing to occur at faster and faster rates and are recognized and amplified by the shrinking of the Arctic's sea ice, the thawing of permafrost and ancient carbon emissions into the atmosphere, declining terrestrial snow pack, shrub encroachment of the tundra, and more frequent and prolonged Arctic Vortex blasts of cold air and snow into the US, Europe and Scandinavia. One of the most important changes that is central to the entirety of Arctic change is how the water cycle is behaving now, how it interacts with sea ice and how weather events dictate transport of Arctic moisture and air into the lower latitudes and how low latitude moisture is transferred into the Arctic, dictating precipitation patterns and the delivery of freshwater around the north. However, understanding how the Arctic water cycle is behaving over the entire calendar year, including during polar night with measurements and observations directly in the Arctic Basin during winter has been tremendously difficult as the region at times is almost as remote and inhospitable as the dark side of the moon. The goal of this project is to test, measure and develop a completely new understanding of the real-time behavior of the Arctic water cycle continuously during 1.5 years as part of a major Arctic climate initiative involving land-based stations in coordination with simultaneous measurements aboard the Polarstern icebreaker. These coordinated, real-time measurements will take place as the icebreaker drifts during fall, winter, spring and summer from the eastern Arctic, across the North Pole, along the east coast of Greenland and into the Barents Sea region. This project will take continuous measurements of water vapor and precipitation chemistry from Thule Air Base and Station Nord in Greenland and will be coordinated with measurements being taken on the ship and from other land-based stations in the Arctic. This simultaneous data will be used in new visualization packages to display, share and observe how sea ice, atmospheric transport patterns, and weather patterns are dictating the distribution of water vapor and precipitation throughout the Arctic and into North America, Europe, Scandinavia and Eurasia. This project has several broader impacts, outreach and educational outcomes. By coordinating the measurements with the MOSAiC drift mission, it will contribute to the collective wisdom and understanding of the Arctic System, helping to develop a more holistic understanding of it?s behavior over an entire year, including the most unresolved period, polar night & winter. The project also aims to educate students in classrooms during the observation period of what is discovered, including real-time depictions of water vapor and precipitation chemistry as storm systems develop and then propagate across the Arctic Basin and from the Arctic Basin into North America and Europe and from Europe and North America into the Arctic. The project includes training a postdoctoral scientist whereby she/he will become familiar with cutting edge technology and she/he will have opportunities to explore new venues of study by working with like-generation scientists from many of the Artic countries including partners from Germany, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The project also aims to develop a new set of Arctic Water Cycle and Arctic Change lectures to be offered through UArctic (http://education.uarctic.org/studies/courses) and posted for public access. These lectures will also be made available to the global community including the US, Finnish, Swedish, German, Danish and Norwegian societies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.