Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

CANADA #254: Impacts of Surface Fluxes on Arctic Climate  (Arctic Climate Surface Fluxes)

Outline
The Canadian Arctic is composed of large areas of ocean, lakes and related land mass. It is well known that sea- and lake-surface fluxes can perturb local climates through mesoscale circulations, and that weather and atmospheric-climate scale events have impacts on upper ocean features and lake circulations. This is because of large differences in heat capacity roughness length and albedo of water compared to nearby soils and vegetation, as well as upper ocean/lake circulation. The proposed study would build on previously funded Climate Change Action Fund (CCAF) studies, and collaborate with OURANOS and MAGS-GEWEX regional climate modelling efforts, to model surface flux impacts on climate for the Beaufort Sea and related Arctic Ocean region, northern lakes such as Great Bear and Great Slave, and related land areas. The project will implement a wave model, coupled to an ocean – ice model for the Beaufort Sea, as well as Great and Great Slave Lakes. This is in collaboration with colleagues in USA laboratories. Driving fields are produced by the mesoscale CRCM (Canadian Regional Climate Model; Laprise and Caya, 1999) atmospheric model. Winds, waves and ocean-ice models performance would be tested and verified using a) Available observed data collected from 3 storms from the last decade, where winds have been subjected to a detailed kinematic analysis (Solomon, 2004). b) From recent (1999-present) GEWEX MAGS fields programs on Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes. c) From proposed field work discussed in Section 2 below. The wave model system will consist of an implementation of a state-of-the art operational model such as SWAN or WaveWatch wave model for the Beaufort Sea, related ocean areas and Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes. To achieve high wind / storm selection, we propose to use the state-of-the-art CRCM high resolution outputs from the OURANOS 45-km simulation for the Beaufort Sea / Mackenzie Delta, downscale these outputs to higher resolution, in collaboration with from MAGS - GEWEX (MacKay et al., 2003, J. Hydromet.). These simulations are concerned with present climate conditions for the period 1975-1994. As the Beaufort Sea area is near the Arctic boundary of the OURANOS regional climate there is concern about biases or errors that may be present due to boundary effects. Therefore we propose to pursue a limited number of ancillary sensitivity studies related to air-sea fluxes, atmosphere-ocean-ice processes to assess biases and possible errors in surface winds and pressure fields in the OURANOS simulations. These studies are motivated by similar studies in the North Atlantic (Perrie et al.; Geophys. Res. Lett., 2004). Given CRCM atmospheric output data, a climatology of high wind events and intense storms would be selected using the BIO cyclone detection software, previously validated for North Atlantic winter storms. Additional high wind events from NCEP reanalysis data, from an analogous automatic detection program (Atkinson et al. 2004), would be included in the archive.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
-Understanding of atmosphere, earth and ocean interactions related to Arctic climate, and necessary for ongoing studies of climate change impacts. -Promotion of studies of factors important to understanding climate and climate change at different temporal and spatial scales -Detailed studies in more sensitive regions relating to human adaptation to changes in ice cover, snowfall, storm occurrence and hydrological changes. -Remotely sensed data from satellite-based earth observation platforms, for example, the new RADARSAT 2 satellite will provide routine measurements of marine surface vector winds on fine-resolution, in conjunction with European and American polar orbiting satellites.

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
1.Dave Atkinson: University of Alaska, International Arctic Research Center – has estimated Artic storm climatologies. 2.Ed Andreas: US Army Cold Regions Lab.– has measured surface fluxes over ice during SHEBA. 3.Yijun He:Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences – has established new meodologies for RADARSAT SAR-derived marine winds.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
The focus area is the northwest Canadian Arctic including the Beaufort Sea, the MacKenzie Valley and related ocean and land regions.

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: 05/07 – 09/07      05/08 – 09/08      
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
1.Facilities to insert air-sea flux measurements in the Beaufort Sea for 2 summers, to be implemented by related projects funded by CFCAS and (USA) NSF – National Science Foundation. 2.Acquisition and analysis of all available RADARSAT – SAR images from the open ocean areas of the Beaufort Sea and related waters of the northwest Canadian Arctic during summers / autumns of 2007-08.

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
The legacy will consist in validated models for surface flux impacts on Arctic climate, and remotely sensed data as provided by RADARSAT-SAR, validated with in situ field data. This will provide the basis for continued ongoing studies.

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?
Consortium
Another national polar operator
National agency
Military support
Other sources of support

Required logistics are defined and implemented through two partner projects, (funding pending): 1. led by McGill University and proposed funded by CFCAS, 2. led by Univ. Colorada and proposed funding by (USA) NSF.

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
No - At this time this project has not been so endorsed. This project is a direct extension of the storm/ climate modelling component of the GEWEX MAGS program, and therefore should be possible to be endorsed by community and government agencies that supported that project.

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?


This is envisaged as the physically / numerical / field component of the overall Canadian effort for IPY, rather than an autonomous new proposal. However, it potentially could represent a new autonomous project consisting of modelling and field components.

How will the project be organised and managed?
The project elements will fit together systematically to comprise an interdisciplinary system. Work plans and milestones for each element will indicate where and how the elements interact directly, showing how much of the work can be conducted effectively without a special coordinating structure. The strength of the project is its multidisciplinary approach and synergistic approach relying on communication and coordination between investigators. This will involve many informal regular and irregular meetings between investigators in different elements. Financial management will be consistent with the division into work elements to be described in the detailed proposal and the budget justification.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
Following the experience of GEWEX MAGS, education, outreach and communication will involve meeting residents of the Canadian northwest Arctic, particularly their elders, special interest groups and school, in presentations and in efforts to train them to help with field work, as far as position. A website should also provide outreach.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
Model output will be stored and archived. Data products will be stored in formats compatible with other ocean observing systems, in particular the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (www.gomoos.org). Thus, quality-assured data products will be stored in NetCDF format. Data will be archived on a website for use by co-investigators. Field data will also be sent to the Marine Environmental Data Service (MEDS) for archival and distribution to the wider community upon request. The data bases will be set up using Oracle and MySQL database software, which are used by BIO and MEDS, as well as by GoMOOS. A subset of data products will be available to the general public via the website.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
This proposal anticipates funding through government committees such as from CFCAS – Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Studies, and CSA – Canadian Space Agency.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
None

PROPOSER DETAILS

Dr Will Perrie
Bedford Institute of Oceanography - DFO
1 Challenger Dr.
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
B2Y 4A2
Canada

Tel: 902-426-3985
Mobile: no
Fax: 902-426-7827
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation