SEA ICE MASS BALANCE OBSERVATIONS FOR CLIMATE RESEARCH AND FOR FUTURE SHIPPING AND OFFSHORE OPERATIONS IN THE ARCTIC

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The Arctic environment is changing more rapidly than most other regions of the world, and its sea ice cover is strongly retreating. This has significant consequences of accelerating climate warming, and impacting ecological and human systems in the Arctic and worldwide. The planned research aims to obtain the key measurements required for understanding the ongoing changes in sea ice coverage, thickness, and drift. The research is carried out using in-situ and airborne measurements and satellite remote sensing, in close collaboration with the climate modeling community. It includes sampling and analysis of ice cores as well as the operation of sea ice drifting buoys and automatic cameras to provide continuous data complementary to the airborne surveys, and to provide critical validation information for satellite products and model results. The planned work will be linked to concurrent oceanographic, atmospheric, and biological research as much as possible to support studies of the whole Arctic system. Improved airborne ice thickness sensors and instrumentation for snow thickness and melt pond observations will be developed and applied over larger regions than previously possible, to better study regional differences and the impacts of ice advection on changes of ice volume. The research is significant as the areal coverage of Arctic sea ice is rapidly decreasing, at much faster than predicted by any climate model. This demonstrates our limited understanding of climate processes and feedbacks in the Arctic, and is related to a general lack of systematic ice thickness observations. Ice thickness data will particularly be obtained between Canada and the North Pole. However, they will also include the vast reaches of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Beaufort Sea. These measurements will provide important baseline data in preparation for oil and gas exploration, and for shipping in the Northwest Passage. They will also support over-ice travel by Northerners. This is the only Canadian university research studying long-term Arctic sea ice change by strongly relying on airborne observations, with advantages in regional and temporal coverage. It will enhance Canada's capabilities to perform airborne research.