Understanding ozone and mercury in the air over the Arctic Ocean (OASIS)

The central goal of the OASIS-CANADA project is to study atmospheric chemical and physical processes, particularly of ozone and mercury, over the Arctic Ocean. We will do so considering that global warming is occurring, inducing a change in climate that will be especially pronounced in the Arctic, but with unknown feedbacks and implications with respect to inputs of chemical (including toxic) species. It is not our goal to discern actual environmental indicators for change but rather to determine the physical-chemical processes (mechanisms) that take place in the Arctic at the crucial interface between the atmosphere and the ocean below. There can be no doubt that they will have an impact on the nature of climate change and at the same time will be significantly influenced by the change in climate. The OASIS-CANADA proposal forms a unique ensemble of experiments that will benefit from the spotlight that the International Polar Year (IPY) will put on the Arctic. The unprecedented opportunity to study the atmosphere over the ocean requires coordination on international and interdisciplinary scales not otherwise feasible. Observations from space are becoming available and so are sophisticated mathematical models that are used to synthesize the knowledge of the physical nature of the Arctic system. Critically missing in this picture are the in-situ measurements that OASIS-CANADA will provide. The outcomes from this work can be summarized as follows: (1) New, technologically advanced measurement capabilities, required for (unattended) measurements in the remote, hostile, highly sensitive and changing Arctic environment; (2) the initiation of a long term measurement data set from a grid of ozone buoy sites across the Arctic Ocean surface, which will be an essential part of observing, understanding, predicting and preparing for Arctic change in the 21st century; (3) an understanding of interface processes in the Arctic, including the input of toxic chemicals to the polar ecosystem; and (4) a new paradigm for Arctic atmospheric research by the establishment of linkages and understanding with oceanographic and cryospheric scientific disciplines that are currently poorly connected.