Ice Mass Balance Buoy Network: Coordination with DAMOCLES

Researchers supported by this grant will deploy an array of autonomous ice mass balance buoys designed to ascertain thermodynamic changes in the mass balance of arctic sea ice. Specifically, the ice mass balance (IMB) buoys will be incorporated in the Developing Arctic Modelling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies (DAMOCLES) atmosphere-ice-ocean observing array, the large European Union IPY effort to characterize arctic climate change and its likely impacts. The sea-ice component of the DAMOCLES sea-ice array includes a variety of instruments that examine ice thickness at varying temporal and spatial scales. The IMB adds the capability to define how and why the thickness of the arctic sea-ice cover changes. The IMB buoy can determine what portion of the thickness changes are due to differences in snow depth, ice growth, surface melt, and bottom melt. The effort in the second and third years will consist of analyzing, disseminating, and archiving the data from the IMBs, so it can be used widely to improve the understanding of changes in the Arctic sea ice cover. This work will contribute to the ongoing ice mass balance (IMB) buoy deployments currently sponsored by NOAA, as a contribution to Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH), and coordinated with the International Arctic Buoy Programme (IABP) and the North Pole Environmental Observatory (NPEO). Further, it directly addresses major Arctic science questions, identified in the recent Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report, the report from the SEARCH Implementation Workshop, and endorsed International Polar Year (IPY) projects. Active involvement in DAMOCLES will be another step toward realizing a close coordination of IPY activities between DAMOCLES and the US SEARCH program and, more broadly, lays the groundwork for the establishment of an International Arctic Ocean Observing System.