The U.S. Inter-agency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) 5-year Research Plan, FY13-FY17

1. Understand sea-ice dynamics, ecosystem processes, ecosystem services and climate feedbacks in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas and the contiguous Arctic Ocean.

2. Understand high-latitude terrestrial ecosystem processes, ecosystem services and climate feedbacks.

3. Improve and integrate atmospheric studies of surface heat, energy and mass balances.

4. Integrate and continue to deploy a national Arctic observing system and promote international collaboration to create a circumpolar observing system.

5. Integrate Arctic regional models.

6. Assess vulnerabilities of Arctic communities to impacts of climate change and develop adaptation strategies and tools to maximize sustainability, well-being and cultural and linguistic heritage.

7. Understand factors that affect human health in the Arctic, including infectious and non-communicable diseases, environmental contamination and behavioral and mental health disorders.

• National Ocean Policy (NOP) is currently in final review before approval for release.

• NOP has nine Strategic Actions Plans (SAPs).

• SAP 8: Changing Conditions in the Arctic.

• SAP 8 has seven themes- Theme 3: An Integrated Arctic Observing Network.

• Theme 3 has six action items.- Action Item 2: Observe and Forecast Arctic Sea Ice- Action Item 3: Establish a Distributed Biological Observatory

U.S. National Ocean Policy:Changing Arctic Conditions

U.S. Arctic Observing Coordination Workshop:March 2012, Anchorage, Alaska

Break-out groups developed brief white papers describing “showcase projects”:

Ocean 1.

• From observations to management: Providing scientific information to inform decisions regarding offshore oil and gas activities in the Chukchi Sea.

Ocean 2.

• Ocean observations to improve sea ice forecasting.

• Arctic Ocean freshwater and heat observing system.

• Long-term sea level measurements along Alaskan Chukchi and Beaufort coasts.

• The Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO).

• Multi-disciplinary drifting observatory for the study of Arctic climate.

• Community-based observation network for adaptation and security.

Land 1.

• Distributed Environmental Observatory.

Land 2.

• Utilizing the state of existing knowledge to guide infrastructure development.

• Causes and consequences of the greening of the Arctic.

Other.

• Connecting Arctic communities with one another and with scientists: Building a community-based observation network.

• Data management: Improving discovery and access to data.

It is anticipated that the workshop report will be available online in November 2012 at

http://www.arcus.org/search/aon

U.S. Arctic Observing Coordination Workshop:March 2012, Anchorage, Alaska

SIZRS: Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissance Surveys

Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissance Surveys (SIZRS): An Office of Naval Research (ONR)-supported program of ocean, ice and atmosphere observations during 2012-2014 over the seasonal ice zone (SIZ) of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas using US Coast Guard Arctic Domain Awareness (ADA) flights of opportunity with C-130 aircraft.

• Air eXpendable CTDs (AXCTD) and Air eXpendable Current Profilers (AXCP).

• UpTempO (Upper Temperature of the Arctic Ocean) buoys.

• Visible and infra-red imaging of the ocean and sea ice surface (SST, floe size ….)

• Laser profiling of water and ice surface roughness and elevation, and cloud top height.

• Drop- and guided-sondes for vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature, humidity and wind speed.

• The Marginal Ice Zone Modeling and Assimilation System (MIZMAS) and Polar-WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting Model).