Research Summaries

Back Observation of Upper Ocean Temperature, Salinity and pH Structure in the Central Arctic

Fiscal Year 2009
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Oceanography
Investigator(s) Shaw, William
Stanton, Timothy P.
Sponsor Office of Naval Research (Navy)
Summary The Arctic Ocean is currently experiencing a number of environmental changes associated with climate change including rapidly declining summertime sea ice extents and melting of permafrost. Reduced ice cover allows more efficient exchange between the ocean, and atmosphere and permafrost melt leads to larger chemical transports from the land to the ocean. Both of these effects are likely to affect the pH, in addition to salinity and temperature, of the Arctic Ocean surface layer. We propose an exploratory project to measure the spatial and temporal variability of the upper Arctic Ocean to document these ongoing changes and to assess the impact of the changes on the attenuation of acoustic energy in the ocean. This work directly impacts medium and long range acoustic propagation models in the Arctic Region.
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Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal