ASPeCt Sea Ice Data from the SIPEX Voyage of the Aurora Australis in 2007-2008

ASPeCt is an expert group on multi-disciplinary Antarctic sea ice zone research within the SCAR Physical Sciences program. Established in 1996, ASPeCt has the key objective of improving our understanding of the Antarctic sea ice zone through focussed and ongoing field programs, remote sensing and numerical modelling. The program is designed to complement, and contribute to, other international science programs in Antarctica as well as existing and proposed research programs within national Antarctic programs. ASPeCt also includes a component of data rescue of valuable historical sea ice zone information.The overall aim of ASPeCt is to understand and model the role of Antarctic sea ice in the coupled atmosphere-ice-ocean system. This requires an understanding of key processes, and the determination of physical, chemical, and biological properties of the sea ice zone. These are addressed by objectives which are:1) To establish the distribution of the basic physical properties of sea ice that are important to air-sea interaction and to biological processes within the Antarctic sea-ice zone (ice and snow cover thickness distributions; structural, chemical and thermal properties of the snow and ice; upper ocean hydrography; floe size and lead distribution). These data are required to derive forcing and validation fields for climate models and to determine factors controlling the biology and ecology of the sea ice-associated biota.2) To understand the key sea-ice zone processes necessary for improved parameterization of these processes in coupled models.These ASPeCt measurements were taken onboard the Aurora Australis during the SIPEX voyage in the 2007-2008 summer season.

ASPeCt是隶属于南极研究科学委员会（Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, SCAR）物理科学计划的多学科南极海冰区研究专家小组。1996年成立以来，ASPeCt的核心目标是通过聚焦且持续的野外考察、遥感（remote sensing）与数值模拟（numerical modelling）工作，深化对南极海冰区的科学认知。本计划旨在补充并助力南极地区其他国际科学计划，以及各国南极科研计划中已开展与拟推进的研究项目。此外，ASPeCt还包含一项珍贵历史海冰区信息的数据抢救工作。
ASPeCt的总体目标是解析并模拟南极海冰在大气-海冰-海洋耦合系统中的作用。这一目标的实现，需要厘清关键过程，并测定海冰区的物理、化学与生物属性。相关具体目标可归纳为：
1) 明确对海-气相互作用及南极海冰区生物过程至关重要的海冰基本物理属性分布特征，具体包括冰雪覆盖厚度分布、冰雪的结构、化学与热属性、上层海洋水文状况、浮冰尺寸与冰间水道分布。此类数据可为气候模型提供强迫场（forcing field）与验证场（validation field），并为解析控制海冰相关生物群落的生物学与生态学机制提供支撑。
2) 阐明核心海冰区过程，以优化耦合模型中此类过程的参数化方案（parameterization）。
本次ASPeCt的观测数据采集于2007-2008夏季航次SIPEX期间的"南极光号"（Aurora Australis）科考船。