Sea Ice Retreat - using AUVs to measure the turbulent polar oceans

Sea ice retreat in the Arctic Ocean will have far-reaching consequences in terms of the physical oceanography of the area and the resulting impacts in many fields, from nutrient cycling on plankton blooms to heat transport on weather and climate models. One of the ways that sea ice effects the ocean when it is present in high concentrations is by isolating the water column from the effects of the wind, resulting in weaker mixing in the Arctic Ocean than elsewhere. This is expected to change however as the Arctic moves to a more seasonally ice-free state.

The project makes use of three technologies: an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) equipped with turbulence measuring instruments; a freefall turbulence profiler, lowered off of a ship; and an archive of Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler data from the past two decades across a range of locations in the Arctic Ocean. The use of this combination of technologies in this area is novel and aims to produce a new perspective on the implications of sea ice retreat on the physical oceanography of the Arctic.

The project is linked to the Arctic PRIZE project.

Supervisors

Professor Finlo Cottier, SAMS

Professor Mark Inall, SAMS

Professor Michael Meredith, British Antarctic Survey

Dr Alexander Brearley, British Antarctic Survey

Professor Martin Ludvigsen, Centre for Autonomous Marine Observations and Systems, Trondheim

Funder

NEXUSS / NERC

University

University of the Highlands and Islands