Download ORION and the Ocean Observatories Initiative - Lamont

Abstracts for Science and Education Opportunities for an Arctic Cabled Seafloor
Observatory
An NSF-Supported Community Meeting
Held in Barrow, Alaska 7 – 8 February, 2005
ORION and the Ocean Observatories Initiative
Bob Detrick (WHOI)
The National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), and the research-driven Ocean
Research Interactive Observatory Networks (ORION) Program, is a major contribution by NSF to a
broader national and international effort to establish a global Earth observing system, the Global Earth
Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The goal of the OOI is to deliver an interactive, globally
distributed and integrated sensor network to enable next-generation studies of the complex, interlinked
physical, chemical, biological and geological processes operating throughout the global ocean. It has been
developed based on recommendations from more than 30 workshop reports and planning documents dating
back to 1988, including two reports from the National Academy of Sciences, a number of widely attended
national and international workshops, and a variety of more focused science, engineering, and outreachoriented meetings and activities.
In 2000 the National Science Board approved the OOI as a Major Research Equipment and Facilities
Construction (MREFC) project. The President’s budgets in FY2004 and FY2005 called for funding of OOI
beginning in FY06 with approximately $250M provided over a five-year period. The OOI comprises a
number of major investments, including support for the fixed observatory infrastructure (cables, moorings,
junction boxes), project and data management, cyberinfrastructure, and certain core instrumentation. This
infrastructure will support the larger ORION Program, which will fund the operation and maintenance of
observatory infrastructure, the utilization of observatories in ocean research, most observatory
instrumentation including development of new sensors, the use of mobile platforms such as gliders,
profiling floats and AUVs, and related education and outreach activities.
The OOI has three major elements: observatories at coastal, regional and global spatial scales that are
linked by a common instrument, infrastructure and information management system as described below:
• The Global Ocean Observatory comprises a set of highly capable interactive moored buoys sited around
the world’s ocean in places where surface-to-bottom ocean data needs are greatest. These observatories
will consist of large, rugged, diesel-powered, telemetering buoys where scientific need dictates high data
return rates and power requirements, and simpler, but still very capable, designs for other settings.
• The Regional Cabled Ocean Observatory, in cooperation with ongoing Canadian efforts, will
instrument an entire tectonic plate at key locations in the Northeast Pacific offshore Oregon, Washington
and Vancouver Island. A permanent electro-optical seafloor cable will connect multiple seafloor nodes that
will provide power (10s of kW) and high-bandwidth (data transfer rates of 10-100Gbps) for the sensors,
instruments and underwater vehicles that will allow access to surrounding waters, seafloor-to-sea surface.
• The Coastal Ocean Observatory will provide sustained, but adaptable access to dynamic and
heterogeneous coastal systems. Fixed Endurance Arrays will provide continuous observations at widely
distributed locations to document events and long-term changes, while relocatable Pioneer Arrays will
provide a flexible capability to focus on key processes in optimal configurations.
A system-wide cyberinfrastructure will allow users to remotely control their instruments - for example,
the rate at which data are sampled, perform in-situ experiments, construct virtual observatories of suites of
sensors specifically tailored to their scientific needs, and access data in near-real-time from almost
anywhere in the world’s oceans 24/7/365. More information on ORION and the OOI can be found at:
http://www.orionprogram.org/
Oceanography of the Beaufort Gyre: state and problems
Andrey Proshutinsky (WHOI)
The oceanographic conditions of the Beaufort Gyre (BG), which are regulated by the mechanisms and
interactions of the BG system (atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean), will be discussed in the context of the
entire system variability. The major goal of this talk is to show how a long-term observatory program
specifically designed for the Barrow Cable Observatory (BCO) will contribute to our understanding and
prediction of the state and variability of the Beaufort Gyre (BG) system, its regulating mechanisms, and
impact on Arctic climate. Specifically, this talk will address the following scientific questions:
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Is the BG system (ocean, ice, and atmosphere) a flywheel of the Arctic climate?
What is the current state of the BG system?
How does the BG system change from season to season and from year to year during different climate
states and what is the range of its interannual and decadal variability?
How stable is the BG flywheel?
What are the major mechanisms regulating its behavior?
What is the role of the BG system in Arctic climate change?
Proshutinsky et al. (2002) argued that the oceanic BG is a flywheel of the Arctic Ocean circulation that
1) smoothly regulates variability of sea ice drift, thickness and concentration; 2) accumulates and releases
freshwater and heat of the Arctic Ocean; and 3) remotely interacts with the Greenland Sea Gyre promoting
decadal variability of the Arctic climate. Because of a substantial lack of historical data in the BG and
serious uncertainties in existing model results, modern coherent observations need to be acquired and
combined with historical data and findings from numerical modeling. To quantify the state and variability
of the BG system as a climatic flywheel, several time scales of ocean, atmosphere and sea ice dynamics and
thermodynamics should be addressed by the BCO observational program including hourly, daily, synoptic,
seasonal, interannual and decadal variability. It is recommended that different methods be used to explore
the BG system: in situ observations, satellite remote sensing technology, methods of tracer analyses,
numerical modeling, historical data mining and reconstruction procedures, and statistical analyses tools.
Within the context of the broader results, the BCO observations would be very important for determining
changes in the inflow of Pacific waters in the BG, in clarifying the state and dynamics of the intermediate
waters of Atlantic origin, in measuring heat and salt fluxes associated with sea ice formation and decay, and
in characterizing biological productivity rates and their variability. Understanding the BG system is
extremely important for detecting climate change in the Arctic, clarifying the contributions from the
airiceocean components and answering other major questions posed by the SEARCH science plan. The
BCO should be a very important component of an integrated Arctic Observing System which will
significantly contribute to national and international programs dealing with climate.
Beaufort Shelf Circulation and Seasonal Variation
Tom Weingartner (UAF)
Existing Instrumentation in and around Barrow, Alaska
Bernie Zak (Sandia National Labs; Chair of the BASC Science Management Advisory Committee)
Plans for the Barrow Global Climate Change Research Facility (BGCCRF)
Richard Glenn (President, BASC)
MBARI BGCCRF Seawater Intake meeting Summary
Bernard Coakley (UAF)
Early plans for the BGCCRF included a seawater intake that would have extended below the seafloor
from the facility to beyond the ice gouge zone. The intention was to make relatively unmodified seawater
available to science labs for a variety of purposes. As a part of the BGCCRF design process a meeting was
held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Ressearch Institute on October 10 th 2003 to discuss how the a
continuous supply of seawater might be useful for science programs and how the intake itself, if it were
used as a cable run, could support a cabled seafloor observatory. Discussions at this meeting focused on the
unique science opportunities offered by continuous power and two-way communication to a variety of
instruments installed on the seafloor, preliminary discussions about requirements for shoreside computer
support and thinking about the variety of user groups that might benefit from varying degrees of access to
the resulting data streams.
The initial plan called for slant-drilling this hole from beneath the ice-gouged seafloor to a point on the
seafloor a few kilometers out. During the design process, it was recognized that drilling this hole would be
prohibitively expensive, reducing the size and utility of the BGCCRF itself. A less expensive alternative
has been identified to supply seawater to scientists as requested. Installation of a cable across the ice gouge
zone is not in the construction budget for the BGCCRF.
The seawater intake would have had to extend directly from the BGCCRF across the beach and gouge
zone. Since the installation of a cable is no longer dependent on the location of the slant-drilled hole, it is
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now possible to consider locations along the beach near Barrow, with the cable extending out to the
Beaufort or Chukchi shelf. Choosing the best location for crossing the beach will require detailed multibeam surveys supplemented by sidescan sonar and chirp sub-bottom profiling. A particular concern will be
estimating not only the extent of ice gouging, but also its depth.
Progress on Establishing an Environmental Observing System in Bering Strait
Lee Cooper1, Jackie Grebmeier1, Lou Codispoti2, Gay Sheffield3 and Vince Kelly2
1.
2.
3.
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Cambridge
Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Fairbanks
An Arctic Environmental Observatory was established in 2000 through the National Science
Foundation’s Solicitation 99-101 for Long-Term Observations in Arctic. Our project has had three different
components. First, we have been working with subsistence hunters in the local community of Diomede to
secure marine mammal tissues from animals harvested during subsistence hunting for scientific analyses, as
well as to collect data on migration patterns and population biology. Second, we have been determining
annually the status of biologically significant benthic biological communities both north and south of
Bering Strait during annual shipboard sampling. Finally, we have had a goal of developing a system for
pumping seawater ashore on Little Diomede Island for continuous analysis and access by a broad crosssection of the scientific community. The longer-term objective is to be able to undertake continuous
measurements of nutrients, salinity, isotopic tracers, chlorophyll, and other parameters requiring discrete or
automated determinations that will be used for documenting the characteristics of Pacific-derived waters
flowing into the Arctic. Since the summer of 2000, our interim efforts at pumping ashore seawater have
been based at a small laboratory facility that we constructed on the property of the Diomede Village
School. This insulated laboratory is equipped with 100 amp, metered electrical power service, redundant
computer capabilities for data recording, an uninterruptible power supply, a jet well pump, a submersible
well pump, a Seabird thermosalinograph, a Turner Designs fluorometer, as well as automated EnviroTech
nitrate, ammonium, and phosphate nutrient monitors. Our laboratory facility is within 15 m of the low tide
line, approximately 10 m above mean sea level. During the summers of 2000 and 2001, a jet well pump
was used to directly pump seawater from a depth of 4 m and during March-May 2003, water was pumped
ashore by a submersible pump through a heated and insulated pipeline laid out on the ice surface.
While usable data can be collected during both open-water and ice-covered seasons, even early in the
development and deployment of our water intake system it was clear that a more professional engineering
approach would be needed to produce a reliable and continuous means of pumping seawater ashore. Storm
impacts in the fall, particularly high waves and ice damage in the winter limit our capabilities to pump
water ashore, despite our use of the best available materials, such as abrasion-resistant, low temperature
tolerance Tygothane polyurethane tubing and a jet well pump for significant vertical lift. With support
from the NSF, a geotechnical study at Diomede was completed by Peratovich, Nottingham and Drague, an
Anchorage engineering firm, in 2000. This study concluded it was feasible to directionally drill an
underground/undersea water intake system at Little Diomede Island that would be much less vulnerable to
storm and ice damage. Nutrient surveys undertaken in both summer and winter indicate that the intake can
be located seaward of localized anomalous nutrient concentrations observed very close (~100 m) to the
island. We expect that this proposed system, if constructed, could also be used to emplace cabled
instrumentation and sensors at the end of the water intake system and provide an extended observational
platform in the center of Bering Strait. The Barrow cabled observatory workshop provides an opportunity
to review our progress at Diomede and to share the scientific goals of Barrow workshop attendees in
designing improved environmental observation capabilities in arctic ice-covered seas.
MARS Cabled Observatory: OOI Regional Cabled Observatory test bed
Keith Raybould (MBARI)
The MARS project team is designing and installing an advanced deep water cabled observatory in
Monterey Bay, CA that will serve as the test bed for the regional ocean observatory, currently one
component of the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). The MARS project team is comprised of
engineers from MBARI, University of Washington, Woods Hole Institute, JPL, Alcatel Submarine
Networks Inc, Maripro-Nautronix Inc and Ocean Design Inc (ODI).
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MARS will be installed in Monterey Bay on Smooth Ridge in 890m of water, and will comprise of a
single node connected to shore through 53km of submarine cable. 10kW of power at 10kV and Gigabit
bandwidth communications will be provided to the node from the shore station.
The MARS presentation has been prepared to target information and lessons learnt that could benefit the
planning and development of the Barrow cabled facility. The MARS requirements will be outlined so that
the differences in the MARS and Barrow requirements can be clearly identified. This will allow an
understanding of some of the design decisions behind the current MARS facility. During the design phase,
MARS incorporated several design features were needed that were not anticipated at the start of the
program, but had a profound effect on the design, notably associated with maintainability and thermal
issues. These issues will be discussed. The talk will describe the shore landing and plans for the HDD
(Horizontal Directional Drilling). Permitting for MARS is an major effort as the facility is in the Monterey
Bay Marine Sanctuary. The presentation will outline the level of information needed by the 16 agencies
involved in the MARS permitting process and the timeline f!
or completing the process. Also covered will be the installation and cable burial plans, and the current
status of the project. Finally, an outline of some of the science applications being proposed for MARS and
a few key recommendations will be presented.
Common Marine Mammals of the NE Chukchi and Beaufort Seas
Craig George and Robert Suydam (NSB)
Consistent with the latitudinal gradient in species diversity, the number of marine mammal species near
Barrow is relatively low (~10 species + vagrants). However, population size for several of these species is
relatively high. The common marine mammals of the western Chukchi and Beaufort Seas include:
bowhead whale, beluga, gray whale, ringed seal, bearded seal, spotted seal, and walrus. Since Point
Barrow is the “gateway to the Beaufort Sea”, the numbers of marine mammals migrating through the area
is impressive. An estimated 100,000 or more beluga pass Point Barrow, as well as ~11,000 bowhead
whales and tens of thousands of ringed and bearded seal. Occasional species include minke and killer
whale and ribbon seal. A trait of many arctic marine mammals is that they are highly vocal and therefore
lend themselves well to passive acoustic surveillance.
A fixed acoustic array placed NW of Point Barrow has application to the management and research of
marine mammals. Highly vocal species such as bearded seal, bowheads and beluga are obvious choices for
a wide range of acoustic-based studies. Quantifying detection rates of uncommon species (such as killer
whale, minke whale, and sub-arctic species) through time in response to ice-retreat is another important
research topic. An important application for the array would be estimating the population size of the
Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Seas (BCBS) stock of bowhead whales. Currently this is done through an icebased visual and acoustic survey near Barrow. The acoustic array is hand-deployed off the ice edge and
must be carefully monitored and serviced. To be useful, a fixed acoustic array must have at least 3
elements but preferably several more in precisely geo-referenced locations. Since the distance, direction
and type of call the array can accurately locate is a function of array width, the geometry of the array
should be designed in consultation with acoustic engineers. Applications for a fixed acoustic array include:
presence/absence of marine mammals, migration timing, population index/size of the BCBS bowhead
whales, quantification of anthropogenic noise (barges, ships, seismic, air craft, etc.), reactions of marine
mammals to ship noise, identification of vagrant marine mammals, ambient noise levels, and ice noise.
Finally, local hunters have suggested that sub-sea hydrophones might function as an alert system for
shorefast ice failures.
Augmenting Instruments; Drifters and AUVs.
Andrey Proshutinsky (WHOI)
Acoustic Monitoring with the Beaufort Shelf Cabled Observatory
Peter Mikhalevsky (SAIC)
Acoustic monitoring including navigation, communication, and sensing will play a large role in
observatory based science in the future including observatories in the Arctic Ocean. This talk will focus on
acoustic thermometry and related applications as well as a short discussion of acoustic monitoring and
tracking of whales. The feasibility of using acoustic thermometry to measure long term basin scale
integrated temperature and heat content has already been successfully demonstrated in the Arctic Ocean. In
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1994 and 1998-1999 successful trans-Arctic-basin acoustic transmission experiments demonstrated the
unique coupling of propagating acoustic modes and the major Arctic water masses. The 1994 Transarctic
Acoustic Propagation (TAP) experiment revealed integral, basin-scale warming of the Arctic Intermediate
Water (AIW). The Arctic Climate Observations using Underwater Sound (ACOUS) 14 month time series
from 1998-1999 revealed continuing warming of the AIW and also showed that monitoring of the received
acoustic energy was correlated with integral path average sea ice thickness changes. Analysis of trans-basin
CTD sections from the SCICEX submarine cruises in 1995, 1998, 1999, and 2000 supported the TAP and
ACOUS results and also showed, using acoustic modeling, a remarkable linear correlation between the
total acoustic travel time with the average section temperature and heat content of the AIW. Acoustic
halinometry though not yet tested in the field is a promising method for detecting change in the integral
salinity in the upper mixed layer of the Arctic Ocean. Acoustic monitoring can also be used to detect
changes in the depth of the thermocline between the AIW and the upper mixed layer. Reciprocal (twoway) transmissions can be used to measure transport. Many intersecting paths can be used to support
acoustic tomography to provide spatial resolution. Selection of frequencies and densities of source receiver
pairs can support observations from the basin scale to shelf scales and smaller. These acoustic methods
provide the capability to expand monitoring beyond the point measurements of fixed and drifting sensor
fields to provide integral measurements between all source- receiver pairs.
Acoustic monitoring off Barrow provides significant opportunity to study the bowhead whale. Bowhead
vocalizations are centered at 300 Hz, extend over the frequency range from 50 to 2000 Hz and have source
levels ranging form 155 to 195 dB.
Techniques successfully applied in Hawaii to monitor the Humpback whales can be applied exploiting
acoustic arrays or distributed hydrophones.
These techniques require continuous long term operation of acoustic sources and receivers on fixed
terminals (to separate spatial from temporal changes) and on drifting RAFOS floats, and ice mounted
moorings for Lagrangian measurements. The cabled observatory concept of the National Science
Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) provides the subsea infrastructure, power, data
communications and timing needed to support both regional and basin scale observations in the Arctic
Ocean. In the very harsh environment of the Arctic where synoptic year-round continuous operations for
ocean monitoring are very difficult and where momentus changes are occurring today an Arctic Ocean
cabled observatory is needed. In keeping with the trend of astronomical names one could consider
AURORA for Arctic Undersea Regional Observatory for Research and Analysis.
First year sea ice: here today, here tomorrow -- What can be learned from sea ice at Pt Barrow?
Bonnie Light (UW – APL)
Sea ice in the Barrow region consists of land-fast ice along the coast, an active lead zone beyond, and
then the edge of the pack. While the ice in these areas is predominantly first-year ice, large changes in ice
morphology and dynamics occur with increasing distance from the coast. A cabled observatory at the edge
of the pack ice could measure processes of ice formation and growth, and observe dynamical events such as
opening, ridging, and rafting in a region that is poorly measured and can be quite difficult to access. I will
address questions about the ice in this region, including its morphology, formation, and its dynamic and
radiative properties. I will explore the possibilities of using a cabled observatory to make both one- and
two-dimensional observations using acoustic, radiative, and visual detection devices.
Past, current and future plan of our subsea permafrost research in Barrow
Kenji Yoshikawa (UAF - Institute of Northern Engineering)
I am planning to talk about following activity and results(data):
1. Max Brewer's 1950s projects. especially subsea(Chukchi sea sided) and lake floor borehole
temperature.
2.Lewellen's drilling and Rogers et al. nearshore permafrost studies at Beaufort sea side1970s.
3.Collett and Bird 1980s brine (cryopeg) at subsea permafrost studies.
4.Yoshikawa Elson lagoon drilling and CH4 flux 1990s
5.BEO Permafrost observatory activity 2000s and drilling
6. future plan for our permafrost research
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Monitoring Active Geologic Processes on the Alaska Margin
Margo Edwards (University of Hawai’i)
The Alaska-Beaufort Margin (ABM) extends from the base of the Chukchi Borderland eastward to the
MacKenzie River delta. This aseismic, Atlantic-type continental margin has a shelf measuring ~75 km
wide that ranges in depth from 0-50 m. The shelf is characterized by gentle seaward dips with zones of
down-to-the-north normal faults that are prominent near the shelf break [Grantz et al., 1979]. The margin
is bounded to the north by a steep, heavily canyoned continental slope that drops to 1000 mwd in the
Canada Basin over an average distance of just 13 km. To the south, the continental shelf grades into a
broad, low relief plain that extends to the foothills of the Brooks Range.
Recent imagery and bathymetry of seafloor along depict an amazing array of seeps, permafrost and subglacially generated bedforms. The latter are associated with a ‘second shelf break’ that Engels et al.
[submitted] suggest formed by erosion produced by an ice stream that flowed from over-deepened glacial
troughs in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago westward across the Chukchi Borderland. This bench is
truncated to the north by steep dendritic gullies that initiate in branching catchment areas up to 18 km
across and coalesce to form broad trunk channels in water depths >1500 m. The gullies are inferred to have
formed in response to sediment-laden sub-glacial meltwater cascading down the steep continental slope and
triggering turbidity currents; they are likely to be preferred pathways for sediment transport into the Canada
Basin.
Monitoring active processes along the ABM should involve a range of instruments that will facilitate
interdisciplinary research. A potential starting point for a seafloor monitoring system on the ABM is the
“Rumbleometer” that was developed by the Pacific Marine Enviromental Laboratory of the National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to monitor volcanic activity on the Juan de Fuca Ridge.
These multi-sensor platforms include bottom pressure recorders, short-baseline tilt sensors, seismicity
monitors, electromagnetic current meters and temperature sensors that provide real-time measurement of
ground deformation and disturbances in the water column. In combination with optical and acoustic
sensors, this type of cabled observatory station would provide real-time monitoring of sediment transport
and biological and geological processes associated with hydrocarbon seeps as well as potentially measuring
the passage of deep tides and earthquake- or slump-related tsunami.
UA Museum of the North: Education Programming and Outreach
Roger Topp (UAM)
The UA Museum of the North (UAMN) seeks to broaden its effectiveness as an national outreach hub for
informal arctic and sub-arctic education in history, culture, and science; and to grow a cultural and science
attentive public that, in turn, invests in further stewardship and research. To meet these objectives, the
museum is engaged in education outreach projects ranging from online video and photographic databases
partnering with statewide museums and libraries, to in-house CD-ROM animation, DVD, and hands-on kit
production for classroom and auditorium programming.
In 2005, the UAMN will open its doors on expanded gallery, lab, collections, and education spaces. As
part of the expansion, the Arnold Espe Auditorium and the Museum Education Center will be
technologically advanced learning and presentation venues developed to meet the growing requirements of
successful museum shows, lectures, school tours, and distance delivery programming. Current projects and
proposed initiatives increasingly benefit from state and national community and schools partners, in-house
production facilities, and University researchers. Raw and processed data from the cabled observatories
will be embedded in a suite of online applications enabling k-12 and college classes to study arctic system
science, marine science, the process of scientific data collection, and the impact the arctic system has on
Earth system science.
Younger students will use streamed data to make daily observations; older students will manipulate real
data sets. The online applications will help students to visualize and interpret the data. Depending on the
instruments used, duplicate instruments or similar teaching models (e.g. anemometer instead of current
meter) will be incorporated into hands-on kits. Disseminated museum programs and a gallery exhibit will
be designed to process “live” data and help demonstrate the central nature of polar environmental processes
on life and culture in the arctic and over the globe.
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RAHI, ANSEP and the Geosciences: Examples of Science and Engineering programs for Alaska
Natives at UAF
Catherine L. Hanks and Dan Soli (UAF)
With the aging U.S. population, there is a growing recognition that there will be an increasing need for
talented young scientists in the next 20 years. Minority populations could contribute significantly to this
manpower need, but remain virtually unrepresented in many scientific disciplines, especially the
geosciences. This situation is particularly acute in the arctic regions, where indigenous populations could
provide a unique perspective on their landscape and its use. The University of Alaska has several programs
that specifically encourage minority populations to enter science and engineering as careers. These
programs also provide an infrastructure for research programs seeking to support minority students.
The Rural Alaska Honors Institute (RAHI) is a UAF summer bridging program for college-bound high
school students from remote Alaskan communities. In the 20+ years since its initiation, more than 50% of
RAHI graduates eventually obtained post-secondary degrees, many of these in science, engineering or math
fields. Research programs can participate in the RAHI program by 1) sponsoring the costs of one or more
high school students to attend RAHI or 2) providing a science elective for the program.
The Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) is an NSF-sponsored Louis Stokes
Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program aimed at promoting Alaska Native participation in
science and engineering careers by providing mentoring and internship opportunities for undergraduates.
Research programs can participate in the ANSEP program by hosting summer internships to ANSEP
students and providing academic scholarships.
The NSF-sponsored Alaska Natives in Geoscience (ANG) program is an example of a project that has
taken advantage of the existing infrastructure provided by the RAHI and ANSEP programs in order to
promote the geosciences as a career option to Alaska Native students. The ANG program provides tuition
and living expenses for 10 Alaska Native students to attend RAHI and teaches a 4 credit, college-level
introductory geoscience class as part of the bridging program. With the assistance of ANSEP, teaching
assistants for the ANG geoscience course are recruited from Alaska Native and other minority geoscience
and science majors. These teaching assistantships are also ANSEP internships, so the undergraduate
students receive academic scholarships during the subsequent school year as well as mentoring and other
academic support.
The Role of a Cabled Seafloor Observatory at Barrow, Alaska in the Context of Results from the
Western Arctic Shelf-Basin Interaction (SBI) Project
Jackie Grebmeier (University of Tennessee)
High latitude ecosystems are projected to be particularly sensitive to climate change and the productive
northern Bering and Chukchi sea region is likely a sentinel indicator of global change effects. The
detection of biological change in the Arctic marine environment coincides with recent observations of highlatitude environmental change, including a seasonal reduction in the extent and duration of sea ice,
increased seawater temperature, and changing hydrographic conditions. Barrow Canyon is a key conduit
for transformed Pacific water and associated organisms that transit to the deep Arctic Basin. Recent
findings indicate enhanced intrusion of Atlantic water through Fram Strait into the deep Arctic Basin,
resulting in warmer, more saline water moving upward at the continental margins of the Chukchi and
Beaufort seas and intruding further up towards the head of Barrow Canyon. Current studies as part of the
Western Arctic Shelf-Basin Interactions (SBI) global change project are investigating the production,
transformation and fate of carbon at the shelf-slope interface in the northern Chukchi and Beaufort Seas,
downstream of these productive shallow shelves, as a prelude to understanding the impacts of a potential
warming of the Arctic. Apparent changes in the oceanographic system in this region could lead to dramatic
impacts for higher-trophic level fauna, such as benthic walrus, bearded seals, and gray whales, and pelagicfeeding bowhead and beluga whales that are of cultural and subsistence significance to Arctic Native
peoples.
There are a number of scientific objectives that could be supported by a cabled observatory at Barrow,
Alaska. Comparison of observations made in Pacific water within the surface layer of Barrow Canyon (e.g.
temperature, salinity, nutrients, chlorophyll, stable oxygen isotopes, particle load) with similar
measurements upstream in the Bering Strait would be extremely valuable. Instruments, such as seacats for
T/S, upward looking sonar for ice thickness measures, and nutrient, chlorophyll and turbidity sensors could
be utilized with cabled power. These time series comparisons would allow both seasonal and annual
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estimation of carbon transformation occurring over the northern Bering and Chukchi shelves that are so
intimately connected to marine system further to the north near Barrow and into the Arctic Basin.
Additional sensor deployment in the Atlantic water layer deeper in Barrow Canyon would track these same
measurements for compare/contrast evaluation of changes in these physical and biochemical tracers in
order to evaluate the status and trends in the physical forcing and ecosystem health of the region. For
example, SBI data indicate high levels of silicate and ammonium effluxing from Chukchi shelf sediments,
which are entrained in the northward moving water that form plumes of nutrients extending offshore at the
halocline depth into the Arctic basin. Other measurements, such as dissolved organic carbon measured
indirectly via CDOM fluorescence sensor technology, plankton recorders, benthic video recorders, and
acoustic devices could be mounted on a cabled network to trace important aspects of the carbon cycle.
Continuous, long-term, measurements of physical and biogeochemical parameters using a cabled
observatory infrastructure could be extremely valuable for tracking environmental change at various time
scales in the region.
The Alaska Ocean Observing System - Opportunities for Arctic Observatories
Molly McCammon (AOOS) and Mark Johnson (UAF)
The Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS) is the recognized regional component of the Integrated
Ocean Observing System, a national effort to integrate coastal and ocean observations among federal, state,
academic, and private entities. AOOS is user-driven; that is, the needs of stakeholders of Alaska’s marine
environment and resources determine the types of observations to be gathered. AOOS will have statewide
functions such as data management and modeling and education and outreach, as well as observing systems
tailored to the needs of the state’s three Large Marine Ecosystems: the Arctic (Beaufort and Chukchi
Seas), the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands, and the Gulf of Alaska.
The primary users of the Arctic marine system are coastal communities and their residents, subsistence
hunters, the oil and gas industry, shipping and marine navigation, resource managers, and climate change
researchers. Information products identified thus far include improved sea ice, fog and weather forecasts,
ocean circulation models, climate change indicators, coastal erosion prediction, and real-time access to
data. Our presentation will recommend ways a cabled observatory located in Barrow could help provide
those and other information products.
The Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) and the Barrow Cabled Observatory
Jamie Morison (APL – UW)
Building the Barrow Observatory
Alan Chave (WHOI)
An ocean observatory is a fixed infrastructure intended to provide power, bidirectional communication,
time, and control services to seafloor sensors and actuators. They may be designed around either submarine
cables or buoys, and the choice of technology family depends on the applications. For Barrow, buoyed
observatories make little sense due to pervasive sea ice and extreme oceanic conditions, and hence the
focus of this presentation will be on cabled observatories.
The presentation will occur in two parts. First, a cabled ocean observatory will be defined from an
engineering perspective through a system-level definition of the major components that constitute such a
facility. The cross-cutting cyberinfrastructure elements that tie the major subsystems together will also be
outlined. Reference to existing or planned ocean observatories will also be made as appropriate. Second,
the key planning steps needed to install a cabled observatory will be outlined, with particular reference to
unique issues that occur for Barrow.
Seafloor Sounding in Polar and Remote Regions (SSPARR): a Status Report
Dale Chayes, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
The Seafloor Sounding in Polar and Remote Regions (SSPARR) System will collect depth soundings in
regions never visited by ships. As envisioned, the system will comprise a number of expendable, batterypowered, surface drifting buoys, each containing a simple single beam depth sounder, a GPS navigation
receiver, and a bi-directional satellite link; and the shore infrastructure to monitor the buoys, control their
function, receive sounding data, perform quality checks, archive, and serve the sounding data. Buoys will
be strategically deployed in ocean areas where prevailing surface motion (wind, currents, ice drift) will
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carry them into regions where there is a lack of reliable soundings.
SSPARR buoys will also be capable of using their sonar to relay GPS positions to submerged vehicles
(AUVs, drifters, and submarines) to improve the navigational accuracy of inertial and dead reckoned fixes.
The modular design will allow SSPARR capability to be integrated into larger buoy or ice-anchored
instrument systems.
We have completed the design of a prototype instrument; developed the interface protocols between the
modules, experimented with communications and housekeeping hardware implementations, collected some
example data and used it to experiment with bottom detection algorithms; characterized an example
transducer; and produced the first sonar transceiver module. We expect to do one more round of in water
tests with the new sonar module in the immediate future. The next phase will be do build, test and deploy a
few buoys. We expect to request funding for the next phase shortly.
SSPARR is a collaborative effort of SSPARR is a collaborative effort of Robert Anderson of Science
Applications International Corp., Mark Rognstad of the Hawaii Mapping Research Group at the University
of Hawaii, Larry Mayer of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire,
and Dale Chayes and Val Schmidt at the Instrument Lab of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of
Columbia University.
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