Full Proposals for IPY 2007-2008 Activities

Proposed IPY Activity Details

1.0 PROPOSER INFORMATION

(Activity ID No: 8)

1.1 Title of Activity
Synoptic Antarctic Shelf-Slope Interactions Study

1.2 Short Form Title of Proposed Activity
SASSI

1.3 Activity Leader Details
Karen Heywood
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia
UK

1.4 Lead International Organisation(s) (if applicable)
iAnZone
CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Implementation Panel
NULL
NULL

1.5 Other Countries involved in the activity
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Norway
Spain
USA
NULL
NULL
NULL
NULL
NULL

1.6 Expression of Intent ID #'s brought together in this proposed activity
9, 57, 232, 237, 310, 485, 573, 585, 596, 635, 911

1.7 Location of Field Activities
Antarctic

1.8 Which IPY themes are addressed
1. Current state of the environment
2. Change in the polar regions
3. Polar-global linkages/tele-connections
4. Exploring new frontiers

1.9 What is the main IPY target addressed by this activity
1. Natural or social science

top of page

2.0 SUMMARY OF THE ACTIVITY

Short synoptic transects will be undertaken circumpolarly and will radiate outwards across the Antarctic continental shelf and slope. Transects will incorporate insofar as possible:* Closely-spaced full depth CTD/ADCP stations plus profiles of PAR irradiance, bio-optical properties and fluorescence (EoI 9, 57, 310, 573, 585, 596, 635, 911).* Collection throughout the water column at stations of water samples for tracer, chemical and biological analyses including oxygen isotopes, carbon parameters, inorganic and organic nutrients and trace gases, and for biomass on deck incubation experiments to evaluate auto and heterotrophic activities (EoI 9, 573, 585, 596, 635, 911).* Deployment of moored instruments along each transect to measure temperature, salinity, current velocities, sedimentary fluxes and sea level for at least one year (EoI 9, 57, 310, 573, 585, 596, 635).* Deployment on the shelf of autonomous water samplers to collect weekly samples for tracer analyses (EoI 9).* Deployment of ice-hardened surface ocean drifters across the coastal and slope break current systems, measuring temperature, salinity, sea level pressure and location (EoI 9, 310, 573).* Air-sea heat and freshwater flux and meteorological measurements (EoI 9, 573, 585).* Swath bathymetric surveys of the complex shelf and slope terrain, both to assess local circulation and mixing processes, and to detect geological/glaciological phenomena such as iceberg scour (EoI 9, 237, 310, 573, 596).* Sedimentological observations including coring and biostratigraphy (EoI 596, 635)* Turbulent mixing measurements (EoI 9, 310, 573).* Continuation of hydrographic sections poleward beneath ice shelves and/or sea ice using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) such as Autosub (EoI 9) and hot-water drilled access holes (EoI 310).* Use of AUVs to measure sea ice thickness distribution on the Antarctic shelf and slope (EoI 57)* Use of autonomous underwater vehicles and/or instrumented pelagic marine mammals to penetrate beneath sea ice and ice shelves to measure hydrographic and dynamical properties (EoI 9, 585), marine geological, chemical and biological characteristics (EoI 237)Additionally:* We will deploy subsurface Lagrangian floats to be tracked acoustically beneath the seasonal sea ice throughout the winter (EoI 9, 485, 573, 596). These will provide profiles of temperature and salinity, and geographical location, every 10 days. Plans are already in hand to ensonify the Weddell Sea, the offshore region of the Wilkes-Adelie Land and the western margin of the Antarctic Peninsula, to enable use of such floats. Extension of this tracking network to other regions surrounding Antarctica will be undertaken through SASSI to provide polar coverage to the global Argo programme.* Visible, passive microwave and synthetic aperture radar remote sensing (EoI 57, 585, 911) will be used to assess the seasonal/interannual variability of circumpolar coastal polynyas and of phytoplankton biomass. SAR, passive microwave and Cryosat altimetry will allow large scale monitoring of sea ice.* Numerical models will be developed to quantitatively study heat & freshwater fluxes and water mass transformations, and impacts of large iceberg calving events (EoI 57), processes of exchange between ice shelves and the open ocean (EoI 232), tides (EoI 573), biogeochemical cycling of C, N and P (EoI 635), short-term mesoscale instabilities, mixing processes and mass transports associated with gravity plumes across sloping bathymetry (EoI 596). Coupled ice-ocean models (EoI 585) will be analysed, and will assist in developing parameterisation for climate models.* Hot-water drilling through floating ice shelves (EoI 232, 310) will allow sub-ice-shelf CTD profiling and mooring deployment, together with acoustic determinations of basal melt rate.

2.1 What is the evidence of inter-disciplinarity in this activity?
The activity will combine physical oceanography with glaciology, marine biology, biogeochemistry and geology. This broadens the programme and optimises use of research platforms and logistics. The instrumenting of marine mammals provides information for both biologists and physicists.

2.2 What will be the significant advances/developments from this activity? What will be the major deliverables? What are the outputs for your peers?
Theme 1: SASSI will provide a unique synoptic snapshot of the marine environment of the Antarctic continental shelf and slope, including physical (iAnZone), biogeochemical (GEOTRACES, SOLAS, IMBER) and biodiversity (CoML, GLOBEC) measurements. This delivers a baseline for assessing current ocean climate processes, effectively a legacy against which to measure future change.
Theme 2: SASSI will deliver understanding of continental shelf and slope processes (a critical contributor to global climate variability) to adequately allow their accurate representation in climate models, that can then be used to predict this variability. Interannual and seasonal variability will be documented for the first time in many locations.
Theme 3: SASSI is designed to understand the role of the physical, biological and biogeochemical polar processes in global climate, including the efficiency of the biological pump in the carbon cycle and the carbon budget. The planned snapshot will help us to assess present-day conditions and likely future changes in the context of global modes of variability such as Antarctic Circumpolar Waves, the Southern Annular Mode, and the El Nino - Southern Oscillation.
Theme 4: SASSI will make observations in geographical regions never intensively studied. The first sub-ice observations using moored instrumentation, under-ice floats, and AUV/ROVs have the potential to radically alter our view of the Antarctic system.
SASSI will: 1. Obtain a circumpolar synoptic view of Antarctic shelf and slope oceanography. 2. Assess quantitatively the properties and amount of inflow of warm, saline deep water onto the continental shelf, with a focus in regions known to be active sites for water transformation. 3. Assess the role of onshore oceanic heat transport in melting sea ice and ice shelves.4. Determine where, when and how this oceanic inflow is transformed, through net cooling and freshwater fluxes during the seasonal sea ice melting/freezing cycle over the shelf domain into dense Shelf Water and its subsequent derivative Antarctic Bottom Water.5. Assess the importance of ice shelves in the net upper ocean freshening process including iceberg calving and melting, and determination of basal melt rates.6. Assess the importance of coastal polynyas to water mass transformations.7. Better understand the dynamics of the coastal current and slope front systems, and how they influence the exchanges between sea ice, glacial ice, coastal and deep ocean waters.8. Quantify freshwater transports around Antarctica through both currents and atmosphere-ocean-ice interaction.9. Determine down-slope dynamics and associated meridional transports, integrating physical, geological and geophysical records with the currents in the bottom boundary layer.10. Assess the degree to which present coupled ocean-ice models represent the shelf system and its variability.11. Design a long-term monitoring system over the Antarctic continental margins that can act as an early indicator of global climate-related changes.12. Identify key Antarctic shelf/slope processes that should be included or parameterised in future climate models.13. Explore and document the geology, chemistry and biology of underwater volcanic hot vents.14. Obtain a swath bathymetry map of the Antarctic continental shelf and slope, including beneath ice shelves. 15. Assess the role of the microbial biomass and processes in regulating the carbon biological pump efficiency for the carbon sequestration on the Antarctic continental shelf.16. Understand the bio-optical processes that affect the ocean colour signal in the Southern Ocean.

2.3 Outline the geographical location(s) for the proposed field work (approximate coordinates will be helpful if possible)

2.4 Define the approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities?

2.5 What major logistic support/facilities will be required for this project?
Ice strengthened research ship
Helicopters
Ship recovery of buoys etc
Snow terrain vehicles
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
Fuel depots
Multi-instrumented platforms
Ice drilling capability

Further details – Sharing of research cruises is likely with GEOTRACES, CASO and marine biological IPY work.

2.6 How will the required logistics be supplied? Have operators been approached?

2.7 If working in the Arctic regions, has there been contact with local indigenous groups or relevant authorities regarding access?

top of page

3.0 STRUCTURE OF THE ACTIVITY

3.1 Origin of the activity
This is a new activity developed for the IPY period

3.2 How will the activity be organised and managed? Describe the proposed management structure and means for coordinating across the cluster
iAnZone has organised collaborative Antarctic projects before and the organisational infrastructure is already in place. We have a regularly-rotating SCOR-approved steering committee with current members from Japan, Finland, New Zealand, China, Italy, USA, Brazil, Germany, Australia and Russia, currently chaired by the UK. The iAnZone biennial meetings, workshops and mailing list are open to all. See the website at http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/fac/physocean/ianzone/.
Use will be made of the existing iAnZone mailing list, website, steering committee and organisational structure. There is a regular rotation of Steering Committee members and the Chairs (as required by our affiliation organisations, SCOR and SCAR) and it is anticipated that the steering committee would be adapted to include representatives from other cluster members. Formal meetings are held biennially but much of the business is dealt with by email. Additional open planning workshops for SASSI will be organised as has occurred for previous iAnZone projects, the next workshop being that in Venice in October 2005. A major advantage of SCOR and SCAR affiliation is availability of funding to support scientists from less wealthy nations at the meetings (for example, funding is being provided by SCOR for Brazilian and Russian attendees in 2005).
At a higher level, SASSI will work closely with the CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Implementation Panel to make appropriate links and oversee the climate-related Southern Ocean effort as a coherent whole.

3.3 Will the activity leave a legacy of infrastructure and if so in what form?
Detailed bathymetric data from selected areas of the Antarctic continental shelf and slope, including under ice environments, for use by future scientists of all disciplines. These will be crucial for future efforts to numerically model pertinent shelf-scale processes and to incorporate these processes into global climate models.
Design for a climate observing system on the Antarctic continental shelf and slope. Additionally, some of the planned instrumentation will remain deployed after IPY, providing all year-round long time series of marine currents and hydrographic properties. These observations will allow regional validation of future global climate models.

3.4 Will the activity involve nations other than traditional polar nations? How will this be addressed?
We will particularly welcome nations new to Antarctic research who wish to use IPY to develop their own expertise, for example by participating in short sections on their own vessels or those of other nations. Those with limited resources might wish to participate simply by contributing floats or drifters. The short hydrographic sections are specifically designed so that nations with only limited science time or expertise available on Antarctic supply vessels can make a full and important contribution.

3.5 Will this activity be linked with other IPY core activities? If yes please specify
Yes, SASSI will be linked with CASO-Oceans, with BIAC and with Antarctic Sea Ice in IPY (SCAR/ASPeCt). Links with ICED-IPY will be developed through SCAR.The CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Panel will provide a forum for interaction and a means for strengthening links.

3.6 How will the activity manage its data? Is there a viable plan and which data management organisations/structures will be involved?
Agreement has been reached with CLIVAR that they will accept the oceanographic data to be collected during SASSI, since this will be one of the activities overseen by the CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Implementation Panel.
Under-ice and bathymetric profiling data will be archived with IBSCO coordinated at AWI.
Once established, under ice float data are anticipated to follow the ARGO route of both real time availability and long term data archiving.
Hydrological and current data as well as information on field activities (metadata) will be made available through project web pages integrated/mirrored to the Joint Committee for Antarctic Data Management (JCADM) portal.

3.7 Data Policy Agreement
Will this activity sign up to the IPY draft Data Policy (see website)
Yes

3.8 How will the activity contribute to developing the next generation of polar scientists, logisticians, etc.?
The SASSI fieldwork is designed to be possible even from Antarctic supply vessels, so nations with limited resources can use the programme to develop future expertise. Training of young people and those from developing nations will be undertaken through participating in cruises alongside more experienced scientists, and through encouraging the exchange and visits of people from the different groups involved during the data analysis phases.

3.9 How will this activity address education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
Educational outreach will be coordinated with the new SCAR IPY education committee.
Participation in SASSI provides ideal training for students, young scientists and people from developing nations. The iAnZone website will be maintained and developed. The iAnZone mailing list will remain open to all subscribers.Participation in cruises and fieldwork by Masters and PhD students, and by school teachers.National and individual programme websites as specified by most national agencies.We anticipate and will encourage interest from the media, including television programme makers.Further outreach efforts will be subject to funding for webpage or secretarial support.

3.10 What are the proposed sources of funding for this activity?
National programmes and funding agencies. For some nations this funding is already in place. For the majority, funding is being requested. EU funding will be explored. The project sections are designed to be achievable even by nations with few resources, by taking advantage of Antarctic supply ships. Other nations may play a full part by contributing moored arrays, floats or drifters.

3.11 Additional Comments
SASSI provides a framework for close cooperation and collaboration with other programmes. We are already working with other international programmes such as GEOTRACES, SOLAS, GLOBEC, CoML and IMBER. For example, SOLAS will make measurements of the carbonate system along the SASSI sections.There will be a workshop to develop the SASSI project at the next iAnZone biennial meeting, to be held in Venice in October 2005 in conjunction with the Ross Sea conference.

top of page

4.0 CONSORTIUM INFORMATION

4.1 Contact Details

Lead Contact
Prof Karen J. Heywood
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia
School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia
NR4 7TJ
UK

Tel:          44-1603 592555
Mobile:   N/A
Fax:         44-1603 591327
Email:       k.heywood@uea.ac.uk

Second Contact
Dr Rebecca Woodgate
Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington
1013 NE 40th Street, Seattle, Washington
98105-6698
USA

Tel:          (206)-221-3268
Mobile:   N/A
Fax:         (206)-616-3142
Email:      woodgate@apl.washington.edu

4.2 Other significant consortium members and their affiliation