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

需要资金购买气象浮标、冰雪厚度传感器、机载照相相机和红外辐射计，以获取相关的和部分创新的海冰质量平衡信息。需要这些仪器来跟踪冰的运动和变形，测量沿延伸的雪地移动导线的冰厚度，并用于验证空中勘测，推动将雪厚度作为最重要但未得到充分研究的海冰特性之一的恢复，并用有关冰面类型和条件的更多信息来补充空中冰厚度测量。所要求的仪器对于加强对北冰洋和加拿大群岛海冰物质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物质平衡观测站(CASIMBO)的关键组成部分，该观测站目前由加拿大研究教席计划提供支持。这一综合性研究计划于2004年启动，目的是通过现场和航空测量、卫星遥感和建模，研究北极海冰的变化，特别是冰层厚度的变化，以及与其他气候参数变化的关系。这项工作意义重大，因为北冰洋海冰的面积正在迅速减少。最新的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层厚度观测。在加拿大水域准备运输和海上石油和天然气开采时，还需要进行冰层厚度观测。这项研究在系统地应用于北极大范围和重要区域的长期航空电磁厚度测量并结合冰流数据方面在世界范围内是独一无二的。

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.