Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

Ocean - Seafloor – Ice: Interactions in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas  (ASEP-O)

Outline
This element of a larger program, the Amundsen Sea Embayment Plan (ASEP) focuses on the Ocean’s role in the evolution of ice shelves in the SE Pacific. These ice shelves and their tributary glaciers are undergoing rapid change, with potential implications for West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) stability and sea level rise. This project will combine interdisciplinary measurements and numerical modelling to better understand how the ocean properties and circulation influence ice shelf morphology. Studies will be concentrated in that sector of the Antarctic margin with the strongest links to large-scale extrapolar variability in the ocean and atmosphere. The ocean in the southern Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas drives average melt rates under regional ice shelves up to two orders of magnitude faster than elsewhere. Contributing factors include the intrusion of ‘warm’ Circumpolar Deep Water onto the continental shelf, and weak offshore sea ice transport and shelf water formation. Rapid ice shelf changes suggest that ocean properties and circulation may also be evolving, but available data are inadequate to assess temporal change. Time series measurements of ocean temperatures, salinities, chemical tracers and currents are needed near the ice fronts, over the adjacent continental shelf and in the ice shelf cavities. Swath-mapping of the seafloor will help to identify the role of deep glacial troughs in funnelling warm water beneath the ice shelves, and will aid in the construction of realistic models of the ocean circulation. Observations of the ocean, sea ice and seafloor will provide the data needed to calibrate and assimilate into coupled models of the linked ice-ocean-seafloor system. Bathymetric and sub-ice shelf water column measurements should also facilitate the continued assessment of ice shelf buttressing as an important stress component in glacier advance and retreat, and its debated connections to ice sheet stability. Measurements would extend beyond the Amundsen Sea in order to provide flexibility in an environment where access can be difficult, even in summer, and to evaluate recent and prospective change over regions where cooler shelf waters currently dominate ice shelf cavity circulations. That dominance may wane in a warmer climate, and downstream areas have been reported to be experiencing the freshening effects of change in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
The project will make a major contribution to Themes 1 & 2. It will provide new information about the ocean regime on the SE Pacific/Antarctic continental shelf, which we believe plays a significant role in the present-day evolution of the WAIS. It will initiate time series measurements along a remote sector of the ice sheet margin that is poorly sampled and unmonitored in situ. It should speed the development and validation of theoretical and numerical models capable of predicting future change.

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
In its initial stage, this project would be a partnership of researchers from several countries, now based in the USA and the UK. We are open to and will actively seek participation by investigators in other countries who may have related interests, expertise, resources and access to logistic support. For example we would welcome synergistic projects to study sea ice thickness and motion, and surface sediments as a measure of ice shelf retreat during the last millennia.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
The shipboard observations would be carried out along the continental shelf between McMurdo and Marguerite Bay, but with a particular focus on the Amundsen Sea. In that sector, the ice shelves from the Getz to the Abbot are prime candidates for study, with a primary goal of accessing regions near and under the fast moving glaciers that flow into Pine Island Bay.

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: n/a
Antarctic: 01/08 – 03/08            

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
Ice strengthened research ships capable of CTD and multibeam work, and the deployment and recovery of large instrument packages - Helicopters for access to regions covered by fast ice and to ice shelf surfaces - Hot water drill for surface access to ice shelf cavities - Geophysical gear for seismic and radar work on ice shelves - Satellites to provide information on sea ice and other surface conditions - Automatic Weather Stations

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
- Bottom-moored instruments - Ice-moored instruments - Automatic Weather Stations - Drifting Buoys - Community-friendly numerical models

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?
Consortium
Own national polar operator
National agency

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?
New

The project is built on the original ASEP science plan, an outgrowth of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) initiative. A related project has been proposed to begin in 2006, but not as a component of WAIS, ASEP or other programs.

How will the project be organised and managed?
This would depend upon the source and nature of financial and logistics support, the agencies providing that support and the personnel involved. For example, a successful proposal to NSF would be managed by the responsible PIs, in conjunction with the relevant support groups at RPSC/ECO. Implementing related projects such as the installation and maintenance of sea ice buoys or AWSs would involve separate groups obtaining separate support, and would need to be closely coordinated, perhaps via a steering committee. Annual WAIS and FRISP (Forum for Research into Ice Shelf Processes) workshops provide infrastructure for project participants and others to discuss science goals and plan field and modeling activities.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
Funding agencies such as NSF and NASA in the US and NERC in the UK require education and outreach programs as well as a strong emphasis on demonstrating societal benefit. These outreach efforts would be coordinated to highlight their connections to the IPY.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
NSF/NERC-funded proposals have data archiving and management requirements that seek to make observations available to the larger community within a reasonable time frame. Data organizations likely to be involved include the National Oceanographic Data Centers, the Antarctic Environmental Date Centre, the Multibeam Data Archival & Display Project, the ASPeCT sea ice archive and the National Geophysical Data Center. For the numerical modelling work, information would be made available via a live-access server (http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/Ferret/LAS/ferret_LAS.html).

How is it proposed to fund the project?
The ASEP research community will pursue funding for this research through existing programs, where IPY budget augmentations are likely to be essential to overall success of the project.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
A substantial cross-section of the international WAIS and FRISP communities has expressed interest through participation in workshops that resulted in the ASEP Science and Implementation Plan (http://igloo.gsfc.nasa.gov/wais/links/ASEP-final.pdf). This project would be multidisciplinary, international, and consistent with elements other IPY proposals, such as CASO, but would require no major technological advances or types of logistic support not currently available. It would begin to monitor the ocean near a portion of the WAIS that has long troubled theoreticians and observers, but may be critical to understanding ice shelf and ice sheet responses to warming seas.

PROPOSER DETAILS

Prof David Holland
805 Sherbrooke St. West
McGill University
Montreal Quebec
H3A2K6
Canada

Tel: 514-398-1051
Mobile: 917-520-8570
Fax: no
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation