INSTRUMENTATION FOR SEA ICE MASS BALANCE MEASUREMENTS IN THE HIGH CANADIAN ARCTIC

请求提供资金，用于购买气象浮标、冰雪厚度传感器以及一台机载照相机和红外辐射计，以获取相关和部分创新的海冰质量平衡信息。这些仪器需要跟踪冰的运动和变形，测量冰的厚度沿着延长雪地车遍历和验证航空调查，以推进雪的厚度作为一个最重要的，但研究不足的海冰特性的检索，并补充航空冰厚度测量与有关冰面类型和条件的额外信息。所要求的仪器对于加强对北冰洋和加拿大群岛海冰质量平衡的长期现场和空中观测至关重要。这些测量是加拿大北极海冰质量平衡观测站的一个关键组成部分，该观测站目前得到加拿大研究主席方案的支持。这一综合研究计划于2004年启动，旨在通过现场和航空测量、卫星遥感和建模等手段，研究北极海冰变化，特别是冰厚变化与其他气候参数变化的关系。这项工作意义重大，因为北极海冰的面积正在迅速减少。最近的2012年北极海冰最小值超过了气候模型最悲观的预期和预测。这表明我们对北极的气候过程和反馈的理解很差，部分原因是这些模型对海冰质量平衡的错误描述。后者的改进需要更系统的冰厚观测。在准备加拿大沃茨的航运和近海石油和天然气开采时，也需要进行冰厚观测。这项研究是世界上独一无二的，它系统地应用长期航空电磁（EM）厚度测量到北极的一个大的和重要的区域，并结合冰漂移数据。

Funds are requested to purchase meteorological buoys, ice and snow thickness sensors, and an airborne photo camera and infrared radiometer to obtain relevant and partially innovative sea ice mass balance information. These instruments are required to track ice motion and deformation, to measure ice thickness along extended snowmobile traverses and for validation of airborne surveys, to advance retrieval of snow thickness as one of the most important but understudied sea ice properties, and to complement airborne ice thickness measurements with additional information about ice surface types and conditions. The requested instrumentation is essential to enhance long-term in-situ and airborne observations of the sea ice mass balance in the Arctic Ocean and Canadian Archipelago. These measurements are a key component of the Canadian Arctic Sea Ice Mass Balance Observatory (CASIMBO), which is now supported by the Canada Research Chair program. This comprehensive research program was initiated in 2004 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 and airborne surveying, satellite remote sensing, and modeling. This work is significant as the areal coverage of Arctic sea ice is rapidly decreasing. The most recent 2012 Arctic sea ice minimum has exceeded the most pessimistic expectations and forecasts by climate models. This demonstrates our poor understanding of climate processes and feedbacks in the Arctic, partially related to a misrepresentation of the sea ice mass balance in those models. Improvement of the latter requires more systematic ice thickness observations. Ice thickness observations are also required in preparation of shipping and offshore oil and gas extraction in Canadian waters. This research is unique worldwide in its systematic application of long-term airborne electromagnetic (EM) thickness surveying to a large and important region of the Arctic and combination with ice drift data.