Instrumentation for sea ice mass balance measurement in the arctic ocean

要求拨款购买(a)手持式电磁海冰厚度传感器；(b)全球定位系统大地测量基台；和(c)部署在海冰上的气象浮标，以跟踪冰的运动和观察气象情况。所要求的仪器对于支持北冰洋海冰质量平衡的长期原位观测至关重要。这些观测是阿尔伯塔大学刚刚启动的一项综合研究计划的关键组成部分，该计划通过原位、空中、卫星遥感和建模工作，研究北极海冰的变化，特别是冰厚的变化与其他气候参数的变化之间的关系。计划中的野外工作的主要区域将是加拿大海岸和北极之间的北冰洋多年厚冰区域。这项研究意义重大，因为北极海冰的覆盖面积正在以比任何气候模型预测的都快得多的速度急剧减少。这表明我们对北极的气候过程和反馈了解不足。这种分歧可以部分解释为这些模式对海冰质量平衡的错误表述，这在很大程度上是由于在北冰洋普遍缺乏系统的冰厚观测。这项工作在世界范围内是独一无二的，将有助于系统地观测冰厚和冰动力的变化。

Funds are requested to purchase (a) hand-held electromagnetic sea ice thickness sensors, (b) a geodetic GPS base station, and (c) meteorological buoys to be deployed on sea ice floes to track ice motion and to observe meteorological conditions. The requested instrumentation is essential to support long-term in-situ observations of the sea ice mass balance in the Arctic Ocean. These observations are the key component of a comprehensive research program just initiated at the University of Alberta to study changes of Arctic sea ice, in particular changes of ice thickness, in relation to variations of other climate parameters, by means of in-situ, airborne, satellite remote sensing and modeling work. The main area of the planned field work will be the region of thick multi-year ice of the Arctic Ocean between the coast of Canada and the North Pole.The research is significant as the areal coverage of Arctic sea ice is strongly decreasing, at a pace much faster than predicted by any climate model. This demonstrates our poor understanding of climate processes and feedbacks in the Arctic. The disagreement can partially be explained by a misrepresentation of the sea ice mass balance in those models, which is largely due to a general lack of systematic ice thickness observations in the Arctic Ocean. The initiated work is unique worldwide, and will contribute to systematic observations of changes of ice thickness and ice dynamics.