Lessons and Legacies of International Polar Year 2007-2008 (2012) / Chapter Skim
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4 Scientific Tools and Infrastructure
4 Scientific Tools and Infrastructure
Pages 67-88
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From page 67... ...
collected from a constellation of satellites (Figure 4.1) contributed to research related to melting or growth of polar ice sheets and of sea ice, elevation changes in EXISTING OBSERVATIONS sea level, ice-climate feedback loops, cloud heights, AND PLATFORMS aerosol distributions, Earth's radiation balance and The large areal extent of the two polar regions temperature, vegetation canopy heights, and global makes observing these environments a significant biomass estimates.
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From page 68... ...
Thus, by the time the planning of IPY was launch of CryoSat-2 in 2009. completed, it was too late to develop and launch satel- S atellite observations of the polar regions face lite systems with a specific IPY focus.
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From page 69... ...
Frequent and consistent satellite lecting consistent data of both polar regions in a short observations in these regions require passive or active period of time as a unique observational benchmark. A microwave systems, which are independent of light and data collection plan, crafted by GIIPSY from multiple cloud cover.
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From page 70... ...
approach to addressing a gap in satellite observational capability at a critical time and is an important addition Arctic Observing Networks to the normal NASA program for satellite-based observations of the polar regions. This 6-year aircraft-borne In the Arctic, the Sustaining Arctic Observing remote sensing program provides an extensive survey of Networks (SAON)
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From page 71... ...
AON was designed to collect ocean observations from the projects can be seen in Figure 4.4. The international seabed to the surface and across both major inflow/outbasis of IPY blended the ongoing observations from the flow pathways between Arctic and sub-Arctic waters as U.S.-only AON program with the active international well as a pan-Arctic Ocean transect.
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From page 72... ...
The SAON blages of colocated instruments returned continuous process built upon the scientific community's experience information about the atmospheric boundary layer in the Arctic and clearly facilitated deployment of the and surface radiation budget, the evolving snow and various IPY Arctic observing programs. By improving sea ice thickness, temperature and salinity profiles, and international coordination and planning, SAON helped temporal stress history and deformation, as well as the to provide better coverage and perhaps even improved upper ocean stratification, water properties (including cost-effectiveness.
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From page 73... ...
Ultimately, observations made during hunts were provided to the forecasting group, with the expectation that this would contribute to improved 10-day weather and ice fore casts provided to communities located along the coasts of the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Bering Seas. Antarctic Observing Networks In the Southern Hemisphere, planning for a net work of ocean observations began during IPY.
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From page 74... ...
radar and laser altimetry, scatterometry, SAR, ocean color, and passive microwave observations. Observa- Sea Ice Observing Networks tions from ICESat were sufficient to verify the use of laser altimetry in obtaining estimates of both snow and Extensive observational networks carry an addisea ice thickness in the Southern Ocean; information tional benefit that unforeseen shortfalls in one can that has been largely lacking to date.
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From page 75... ...
Bottom panel: The locations of South ern Ocean Argo float observations made during IPY; the general decrease in coverage closer to the Antarctic continent is associated with increas ing remoteness as well as with the presence of sea ice. SOURCE: Rintoul et al., 2011.
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From page 76... ...
Furthermore, although the increase in the ice- grams such as iAOOS that are expected to last for free areas during the late summer will favor the use of decades is critical -- it may advance the careers of the ships to deploy buoys, subsequent ice formation during younger scientists, but it will certainly contribute to the winter may severely limit the usefulness of such the desired longevity of the observing program, which buoys. Also, providing a data set that was adequate for may well exceed the temporal involvement of the initial all possible users was particularly difficult, for example, developers.
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From page 77... ...
Palmer. The Healy, although In particular, it will lack the capability of operating in the largest ship in the history of the Coast Guard, has the Southern Ocean during the winter and of breakproven to have great difficulty maneuvering in thick ing out the U.S.
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From page 78... ...
The SeaGliders were one of the many of large observing networks. Some examples of such instruments included in the Arctic Observing Network innovative tools that provided a new perspective on the (AON)
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From page 79... ...
79 SCIENTIFIC TOOLS AND INFRASTRUCTURE FIGURE 4.9 Photograph of SeaGlider and schematic of SeaGlider operation and communication. SOURCE: Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington.
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From page 80... ...
These data were from mostly automatic weather stations (AWS) , starting in the data-sparse regions, and a large proportion was from early 1980s, helped fill significant gaps in surface high-latitude regions in winter in areas with 80 percent weather observations in the polar regions.
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From page 81... ...
Cores were taken Refined technology and geological drilling techusing a newly designed hydraulic/rotary system con- niques in both polar regions allowed for the recovery sisting of a diamond coring rig positioned on a mobile of these unparalleled records, which will catapult the
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From page 82... ...
Wisconsin, Madison, a drill with unprecedented abil- Ice coring science had its origins in the IGY era, when ity to drill diagonally from selected depths deep in the the very first ice core was drilled in Greenland by the ice sheet to retrieve additional, replicate ice cores from U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering scientifically interesting depths ( Johnson et al., 2007; Lab.
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From page 83... ...
83 SCIENTIFIC TOOLS AND INFRASTRUCTURE FIGURE 4.12 The U.S.-Russia-German-Austrian Lake El'gygytgyn Scientific Drilling program re covered the first continuous record of past climate change reaching back to 3.6 million years. Im ages show the field site and the Lake El'gygytgyn Science Party.
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From page 84... ...
This integration FIGURE 4.14 A 1-m-long section of ice core from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Ice Core; section contains a dark ash layer. SOURCE: Heidi Roop.
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From page 85... ...
. Rapid changes in the polar regions make to engage funding sources for planning data archiving, the need to share data more acute because the knowledge which created an additional funding problem for postbeing urgently sought to inform decisions is well beyond IPY international archiving.
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From page 86... ...
It was guided by the IPY policy through the establishments and adherence to data set by the IPY Data Policy and Management Subcomstandards, sustainable preservation and stewardship mittee and requested updated data-related information of diverse data, and coordinated governance to ensure from all IPY projects as those projects evolved. The access for all researchers.
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From page 87... ...
An example of this category is the wealth involved, other considerations related to data descripof satellite data of the polar regions orchestrated by the tion and availability need to be considered, lest the IPY Space Task Group that was established for the pur- effectiveness or accuracy of the research be compropose of coordinating space agency planning, processing, mised. In social science, trust needs to precede data and archiving of the IPY Earth Observation legacy data acquisition; the building of relationships with local set.
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From page 88... ...
unfamiliar form and content. A number of existing data centers in the United States stepped up to this chal lenge, making data management expertise available to CONCLUSIONS IPY projects and following through with mechanisms The polar regions have always presented great to receive, organize, store, and make available metadata logistical challenges because the terrain is vast, access of all types that would assist researchers in locating data can be difficult and expensive, the working condi- relevant to a wide range of scientific pursuits.
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