NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region

Tags: physical sciences, climate change, sea ice, ocean physics, ice thickness

Objective(s): Sea ice exerts a dominant influence on the exchange of heat between the atmosphere and the ocean by reflecting incoming heat from the sun. Moreover the formation, transport and melting of sea ice influences climate by determining the stability of surface waters, within the Arctic Ocean and in the Labrador and Greenland Seas. Continuous observations of ice thickness in the Arctic Ocean are essential information if we are to interpret pack-ice changes in terms of natural variability or anthropogenic influence. For this reason, monitoring of the thickness of Arctic pack ice is rated as a Priority I activity within the Global Climate Observing System. The only practical monitoring method uses sonar deployed on submarines or on oceanographic moorings. There is no viable satellite-based technique. The Institute of Ocean Sciences has been an international pioneer in the development and use of ice-profiling sonar, and has developed the capability to deploy and recover oceanographic moorings through the heavy year round pack ice of the Beaufort Sea. This project will establish a baseline climate-monitoring site in the perennial ice zone of the Canada Basin. Data from this site will provide answers to the following important questions: what is the magnitude of seasonal and interannual variability in pack-ice thickness, what are the periods of dominant interannual variability, what is forcing the variability, what trends can be distinguished, and what is their cause, how can we improve our understanding through synthesis of observations and modeling results?