The polar sea ice covers are large

Tens of millions of square kilometers, and empty

Sea ice based autonomous systems

Over a hundred position, temperature, and pressure buoys

• International Arctic Buoy Program• Intnl.Program for Antarctic Buoys• Operating since 1970’s• Position, temperature, pressure• Many deployed every year• Surface or air deployed

Sea ice based autonomous systems

The next best thing to being there

Atmosphere

Fundamental meteorological parameters

Basic buoy • Air temperature• Barometric pressure• Position

Augmented buoy• Wind speed• Humidity• Can do multiple levels• Incoming radiative fluxes

Atmospheric chemistry

Ozone, carbon dioxide, and BrO

• Ozone• Carbon dioxide• Bromine monoxide• Position• Air temperature• Wind speed• Humidity• Orientation• Web cam

Spectral solar radiation

Incident, reflected and transmitted spectral irradiance

• Measurements of• Spectral incident• Spectral reflected• Spectral transmitted• All-wave incident, reflected

• Plus a webcam

Sea ice mass balance

Ice motion, snow, ice growth, surface and bottom melt

• Position• Air temperature• Barometric pressure• Ice temperatures• Upper ocean temperatures• Snow accumulation and melt• Ice growth• Surface and bottom ice melt

Ocean profiles

Vertical profiles of ocean properties

• Different methods• Fixed locations• Up and down

• Profiles of ocean properties• Temperature• Salinity• Currents• Biochemical• Optical

Ocean fluxes

High temporal resolution of heat, salt, momentum fluxes

Locations: Webcams

A picture is worth a thousand words

May 15

July 24

June 6

August 16

Integrated sites

1 + 1 + 1 = 111

• North Pole and Beaufort Gyre Observatories• Atmosphere, ice, and ocean

• Air temp., pressure, humidity, wind velocity• Radiometers• Sea ice mass balance• Ocean fluxes• Ocean profiles of temperature, salinity• Web cams

• Getting a long time series

& ICEPOD

Inbound StationsOutbound Stations

Buoy Array Deployments

Integrated campaigns

Spatial integration of autonomous systems

PIPERS – Polynyas and Ice Production in the Ross Sea

April – June 2017

Fully capture the space/time evolution of air-ice-ocean interactions in the Ross Sea

Key autonomous issues

Identify, communicate, coordinate, disseminate

• What data to measure• Where to measure• Where to deposit the data• When to deposit the data• How to coordinate the effort

• International Arctic Buoy Program• Internation Program for Antarctic Buoys• Southern Ocean Observing System• Arctic Observing Network• Climate and Cryosphere

Potential partners