Toward Developing an Arctic Observing Network: An Array of Surface Buoys to Sample Turbulent Ocean Heat and Salt Fluxes During the IPY

This project will deploy ocean flux buoys in the Arctic ocean as part of a group effort to contribute to the goals of the IPY and the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) project by: (1) implementing automated monitoring of oceanic fluxes that, along with their atmospheric counterparts, determine the thermodynamic balance of sea ice at a time of significant change in ice volume and extent. It is this balance, considered throughout the basin, that will determine if the Arctic transitions to a state of greatly reduced or no perennial ice cover, (2) contributing to a database of repeated drift trajectories and upper ocean current structure from the Eurasian Basin across the marginal ice zone, (3) working to improve formulations of ocean surface fluxes for use in large scale models, (4) investigating the effects on ocean surface heat flux of variability in heat transport through Fram and Bering Straits, (5) contributing data that will be used to design optimal observing networks. The overall objective of this portion of the project is to measure and understand the role of the upper ocean in the thermodynamic balance of sea ice within the context of the environmental changes underway in the Arctic.