CRREL-DARTMOUTH

To address these issues we have developed a plan that integrates observations made from buoys and moorings with models. Models are used both to design the observational network and to interpret the results. We have begun to deploy a network of ice-tethered ice mass balance (IMB) buoys complemented by a few sea-floor moorings with ice profiling sonar (IPS). Together these instruments provide data on ice thickness in key areas of the Arctic Ocean.The IMB buoys report in real-time via System Argos, while the IPS moorings record data internally. Deployments are done via partnerships with other programs, such as United States, Canadian, Russian and Swedish icebreaker cruises. Ice mass balance buoys have been deployed during the SHEBA field experiment, in shorefast ice in Barrow Alaska, and in the Antarctic sea ice or Marguerite Bay... The Arctic sea ice cover plays a key role in global climate change studies, both as an indicator and as an amplifier of climate change. The sea ice cover is..