cmd barber sea-ice - arcticnet · and dynamic properties of sea ice for each of the four iris...

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ArcticNet Annual Research Compendium (2011-12)

Sea-Ice

3.6 The Role of Sea-Ice in ArcticNet IRISes (Sea-Ice)

Project LeaderDavid G. Barber (University of Manitoba)

Project Team

Network InvestigatorsJohn Yackel (University of Calgary); Roger De Abreu, Simon Prinsenberg (University of Manitoba)

Collaborators and Research AssociatesDavid Holland (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences); Ingrid Peterson (Fisheries and Oceans Canada - Bedford Institute of Oceanography); Yves Gratton (Institut national de la recherche scientifi que - Eau, Terre et Environnement); Duane Smith (Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada)); Kevin Sydor (Manitoba Hydro); Michel Gosselin, CJ (Christopher John) Mundy (Université du Québec à Rimouski); Louis Fortier, Jean-Eric Tremblay (Université Laval); Jens Ehn, Steven Ferguson, Ryan Galley, Klaus Hochheim, Daniel Leitch, Tim N. Papa-kyriakou, Soren Rysgaard, Gary A. Stern (University of Manitoba); Jennifer Lukovich, Research Associate (University of Western Ontario)

PhD StudentsTao Li (Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS)); Mark Christopher Fuller (Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) System Study); Carina Butterworth, J.V. Gill, Randall Scharien (University of Calgary); Matt Asplin, Mukesh Gupta, John Iacozza, Dustin Isleifson, Alexander Komarov, Jack Landy, Monika Pucko (University of Manitoba)

MSc StudentsNatalie Asselin, Kerri Warner (Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS)); Mosharraf Hossain, Melissa Peters (University of Calgary); David Babb, Karley Campbell, Lauren Candlish, Matthew Gale, Geoff Gunn (University of Manitoba)

Technical and Project Staff Scott Holladay (Geosensors Inc.); Louis Lalumiere (Sensors by Design); Bruce Johnson (University of Mani-toba)

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ABSTRACT

The observed decline in the summer sea ice, in terms of both magnitude and trend, is alarming. We are changing the arctic from one that has been dominated by multi-year sea ice to one that will now be dominated by fi rst-year sea-icerelated processes. We can expect a season-ally ice free arctic early in this century. It is important to note that our planet has not had a seasonally ice-free Arctic for at least the past 1.1 million years. This reduc-tion in sea ice is of critical importance to all peoples of the world because of the role that the Arctic plays in the ventilation of the Atlantic and Pacifi c (Carmack et al. 2006) and because of the large effect that the sea ice albedo-feedback mechanism has on acceleration of warming and increased fl uxes of green house gases to the atmosphere (due to permafrost melt). Both fl ora and fauna have evolved over millions of years to take ad-vantage of the presence and timing of the seasonal sea ice life cycle. Now, northern peoples increasingly are fi nding their traditional way of life under pressure from these changes as they struggle to adapt. Global warming changes both dynamic and thermodynamic processes of snowcovered sea ice and these changes have an impact throughout both the physical and biogeochemical cy-cling in the Arctic marine system. The next few decades will proceed with signifi cant challenges for the Arctic. Marine ecosystems will come under increasing pres-sure; industrial activity will increase as more explora-tion and development occurs; and the Inuit people will increasingly fi nd it a challenge to use sea ice for cultural and subsistence purposes. This project will provide sea ice expertise to the coordinated ArcticNet IRISs of the coastal Canadian Arctic, supplying the required infor-mation for sound management of these challenges.

KEY MESSAGES

1. The summer minimum sea ice extent set a new record in 2011, and continues the trend towards lower summer sea ice extents, and increased ar-eas of open water. This minimum was reported as the lowest on record by the University of Bremen,

and the second lowest on record by the National Snow and Ice Data Centre. The discrepancy arises from the different algorithms each institute uses to process AMSR-E and SSMI data. Regardless of whether a record was indeed set, the 2011 sea ice minimum further reinforces the accelerating trend in loss of sea ice, now estimated at approxi-mately 81,000km2/yr (Stroeve et al. 2011).

2. In situ observations of late summer sea ice in the Southern Beaufort Sea continue to reveal a heavi-ly-decayed ice pack, consisting predominantly of fi rst and second-year ice fl oes (Barber et al. 2011).

3. Scientists aboard the CCGS Amundsen observed several fragments of an ice shelf in the Southern Beaufort Sea this past August. It is likely that this is a fragment of the Ward Hunt ice shelf, which is known to be losing large volumes of ice.

4. The lack of multi-year sea ice at the mouth of Amundsen Gulf is persisting through time, and not holding back fi rst-year ice formation, and re-sulting in increased fi rst-year ice formation.

5. Freeze-up in Foxe Basin, Hudson Strait, and Baffi n Bay was delayed by approximately three weeks, owing to meridional atmospheric circula-tion, steering cyclones far north into Baffi n Bay. Warm air masses associated with these cyclones inhibited sea ice formation in these regions this year.

6. Barber’s group showed how cyclones affect the thermodynamic and dynamic evolution of multi-year sea ice in the Beaufort Sea. Results show that a climatology for cyclones exist and this climatol-ogy is one of the principal driving mechanisms for how sea ice concentration evolves both in the fall and spring period. The research also showed that there was no statistical increase in cyclone frequency but there was an increase in the inten-sity of these low pressure systems.

7. Barber’s group also showed that opening in the sea ice in winter transfer signifi cant heat and moisture into the planetary boundary layer. Due to the stability of this layer this heat and moisture

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is mostly confi ned to the lower 2 km of the atmos-phere meaning the impacts of this are local rather than regional.

8. Prinsenberg’s group successfully implemented the summer ice survey in cooperation with Exx-onMobil. It was the fi rst time EM derived ice thickness from a helicopter-borne sensor and EM sled sensor over multi-year ice compared success-fully with ice in situ data from NRC personnel. The helicopter technology and data is sought af-ter by the oil & gas operators for planning their offshore exploration designs and ice management plans.

9. Variability of sea ice impacts biological, cultural, economic, and global climate systems; therefore, understanding the response of snow, land, and sea ice to atmospheric and oceanic processes is important, particularly within the context of a changing climate. Snow cover is highly variable, and plays an important role in the exchange of heat and energy across boundary interfaces. This controls permafrost and sea ice formation, melt, extent, and thickness. An expected increase in both the timing and magnitude of late winter sea-son rain events in high Arctic environments can result in complex snow covers on land and sea ice. Current operational models of snow, based on active microwave remote sensing inversion techniques, generally consider the snow cover to be a relatively simple medium. These models encounter diffi culty with complex snow covers, which affects the accounting of snow for vast and remote Arctic areas. Yackel’s group is developing measurement techniques and models to account for complex snow covers over various sea ice and land types and arrangements, in order to better ac-count for the complex nature of snow covers in climate and hydrologic model.

OBJECTIVES

• To improve our understanding of atmospheric coupling of sea ice dynamics and thermodynam-

ics by monitoring atmospheric conditions, sea ice motion, sea ice roughness, and growth and abla-tion of sea ice.

• Contribute to the science required to develop an ice management system for oil and gas operations in the southern Beaufort Sea (SBS).

• Integrate sea ice work within each of the Arctic-Net IRISes

• Develop and improve satellite-based remote sens-ing of sea ice through an extensive ship-based EM sampling program, and physical sampling of sea ice geophysical and electrical properties.

• Improve modeling of dynamic and thermodynam-ic ocean-sea ice-atmosphere processes.

• Collect data on the 3-D morphology of ice fea-tures representing the icescape of the SBS.

• Collect data on the oceanic and atmospheric forc-ing of these ice features at a range of space and time scales.

• Collect data required to understand the engineer-ing forces of ice features on oil and gas opera-tions.

• Conduct an ice camp near Resolute (Arctic-ICE project) to investigate carbon pathways within the lower trophic levels of the ice-covered ecosystem using observational process studies in support of one- and three-dimensional ecosystem models.

• Conduct ice research as a part of the Beaufort Re-gional Environmental Assessment (BREA). Re-search will include distribution, identifi cation and prediction of extreme ice features in the southern Beaufort Sea.

• Conduct a sea ice research program in Young Sound in Northeast Greenland in March of 2012.

• Helicopter Sea ice surveys (Prinsenberg): Collect ice and snow profi le data with helicopter-borne sensors from the MY and FY pack ice of Cana-dian Beaufort Sea.

• Complete and begin to use the Sea Ice Environ-mental Research Facility (SERF) located on the

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University of Manitoba campus. The SERF pro-ject is a $1.6M facility funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Canada Excel-lence Research Chair (CERC) programs.

INTRODUCTION

The Role of Sea Ice in ArcticNet Integrated Regional Impact Studies (herein referred to as “Sea Ice”) estab-lishes the foundation for the establishment of key sea ice parameters and understanding of thermodynamic and dynamic properties of sea ice for each of the four IRIS regions. We are just in the process of completing the sea ice database that will be distributed to each of the IRIS leads for the period 1979 to 2010. These data are daily average sea ice concentrations at a spatial res-olution of 25 km over the entire northern hemisphere.

The physical and biological systems of the Arctic Ocean and its peripheral seas have experienced unprecedented change over the past 30 years associated with climate variability and change. Sea ice, a defi ning feature of polar seas, is rapidly changing in regard to age, thick-ness distribution and regional coverage. In particular, sea ice is now observed to form later, break-up earlier, and at its minimum to cover progressively smaller area of the Arctic Ocean. Sea ice in the southern Beaufort Sea breaks up 7 weeks earlier now than it did between 1964-74 (Galley et al. 2008). Major ramifi cations are that the older and thicker multi-year sea ice, which has for so long dominated the perennial ice pack, is becom-ing thinner and heavily decayed when present in the southern Beaufort Sea in the summer.

The prominent changes being observed in the Arctic sea ice affect all physical, biological and geochemical pro-cesses operating across the ocean-sea ice-atmosphere (OSA) interface. The objective of the Sea Ice project is therefore to collect data on the OSA interface over a range of time and space scales, focusing on spatial and temporal variability over diurnal, seasonal and interan-nual time scales. Our overarching objective is to pro-vide data that describe the variability of meteorological,

oceanic, and sea ice variables throughout the Canadian Arctic. Particular emphasis will be placed upon ship-based sampling in the Canadian Archipelago (transits), Hudson Bay, and the Southern Beaufort Sea, as well as via ice camps near Resolute and in NE Greenland.

Our group is actively involved in research that revolves around improving our understanding of ocean-sea ice-atmosphere dynamic and thermodynamic coupling. We employ a large ensemble of ship-based sensors, and physical sampling equipment that collect sensor-based atmospheric, oceanic and sea ice data. Our data collec-tion efforts are driven by many interlinked objectives: 1) Develop a dataset of ice thickness, ice concentration and ice roughness 2) Develop and improve satellite-based remote sensing of sea ice using a ship-based EM sampling program, and physical sampling of sea ice geophysical and electrical properties. 3) Improve our understanding of atmospheric coupling of sea ice dynamics and thermodynamics by monitoring atmos-pheric conditions, sea ice motion, sea ice roughness, and growth and ablation of sea ice. 4) Improve dynamic modeling of dynamic and thermodynamic ocean-sea ice-atmosphere processes.

ACTIVITIES

The Sea Ice project continued to collaborate with indus-try in 2011, which saw the CCGS Amundsen spend two weeks (Leg 2A of the 2011 CCGS Amundsen cruise) of dedicated time to sea ice scientifi c and engineer-ing sampling operations in the Southern Beaufort Sea. From 11 to 25 August, sea ice related scientifi c sam-pling operations, included helicopter EMI surveys, on-ice buoy and beacon deployments, measurements of physical and chemical properties of multiyear ice fl oes, and the collection of atmospheric and ocean forcing on sea ice fl oe data were undertaken. Additional studies on the engineering forces of sea ice and the identifi cation of ice fl oes in radar imagery were also conducted.

Six stations were visited during Leg 2A (Figure 1 and Table 1). On 19 August, the operational decision to

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cancel the on-ice operations component of Leg 2A was made in the interest of safety. Helicopter and skippy-boat (i.e. secondary sampling) operations to sample sea ice were continued, as were ship-based operations including scatterometer (EM) scanning, atmospheric sampling, bottom profi ling, and rosette deployments.

Ice properties were collected with an EM sensor mount-ed on the CCG helicopter and on a hand-towed EM sled. The two week long survey collected ice thickness

and ice roughness data with helicopter-borne Electro-magnetic-laser (EM) sensors fl own at 5-8m altitude on the BO105 helicopter. Video and roughness data were collected with a video-laser system fl own at 100-120 m altitude along fl ight paths covered by the EM system. Additional Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data were collected simultaneously with the EM sensor. The GPR is designed to measure snow depth, but no snow was encountered on the pack ice. Two MYI fl oes were ex-tensively sampled using fi ne grid EM and Video fl ight lines. Additional lines were fl own along marked EM sled and NRC survey lines and by soft-landing at each marked drill hole location. Four regional surveys were done near the ship using 4-6 parallel grid lines each 10-15 km long along which EM-GPR data was collected. The ice property data is used to address the objectives as stated above. The preliminary survey results avail-able to the end of 2011 are being published as part of the report to ExxonMobil, which will be presented to them at a meeting in Winnipeg on January 26, 2012. Other outlets for this data will include DFO technical series and journal publications (currently underway).

Research was conducted at an ice camp near Resolute Bay from April 16 to July 9 as part of the Arctic-ICE project. Researchers collected CTD profi les, ice cores, algal incubations, LiDAR imaging, snow pits and op-tics towards better a understanding of: (1) changes to bottom-ice transmitted irradiance associated with changes to snow depth, ice thickness and timing of melt onset; (2) changes in nutrient supply associated with changes to water mass characteristics and distribution; (3) relative contribution of ice algae and under-ice phy-toplankton to total primary production; (4) timing of ice algae release into the water column; (5) role of microbi-al processes; and (6) change between a pelagic- versus benthic-based ecosystem.

The Yackel group is currently working with datasets collected during previous campaigns as well as prepar-ing publications. Hochheim is also working on collabo-rative publications by providing passive microwave sea ice coverage data and analysis of Hudson Bay and Northwater Polynya regions for papers being prepared by the contaminants group (Stern).

Figure 1. Map of ArcticNet Leg 2A ship track from 2011-08-13 to 2011-08-24.

Table 1. ArcticNet Leg 2A sites. Dates and times are in Local (Ship) time (UTC-6h).

Site Start (mm.dd hh:mm) Stop (mm.dd hh:mm)B1S1 08.14 14:34 08.16 19:05B1S2 08.17 10:30 08.18 19:30

S3 08.19 18:00 08.20 19:00S4 08.21 06:00 08.22 19:00S5 08.23 06:30 08.23 21:08S6 08.24 08:51 08.24 19:45

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RESULTS

CCGS Amundsen Cruise

First and foremost, it should be noted that opportuni-ties for on-ice sea ice activities were severely limited in 2011 due to the cancellation of on-ice sampling op-erations as of 19 August due to safety concerns, and therefore on-ice data collection fell somewhat short of original goals.

A new sampling activity this year encompassed the use of a LiDAR system to capture 3-d imagery of icescape and melt-pond topography. The LiDAR has an ex-tremely high spatial resolution (mm) and can be used to create a high resolution digital elevation model of the ice surface topography. Examples of the LiDAR data acquired at Block 1 Site 2 are given in Figures 2 and 3.

HEMI surveys were conducted during Leg 2A to de-rive sea ice thickness and surface roughness for mobile fi rst-year and multi-year ice. The analysis effort so far has been concentrated on the site-specifi c MY ice fl oes; namely the MY ice fl oe B1.S2 to bring together the EM fl ight and soft-landing data and compare those to the NRC ice hole data set. This was the fi rst time such a drill hole data set was available from thick MY ice and where the EM helicopter and EM sled could sample along the same lines. The comparison of the datasets from both the B1.S1 and B1.S2 MY ice fl oes indicate that the ice thickness properties represented by these two different observation technologies agree very closely for the av-erage fl oe thickness of 5-7m where as the thicker parts the fl oe (>8m) the large foot print averaging and the high saline keels that caused an underestimation of the EM thicknesses as compared to those directly measured through ice holes. The sampled fl oes were the thickest fl oes in the region as the four regional surveys indicate that fl oes thicker than 4m occurred only between 20-

Figure 2. Full LiDAR point cloud (i.e. made up of fi ve reg-istered scans) of Block 1 Site 2 with non-invasive site high-lighted. LiDAR returns are given in orange with a brighter colour indicating a higher return intensity.

Figure 3. Full LiDAR point cloud of Block 1 Site 2, zoomed in from Figure 3.6 to show absorption over melt ponds.

Figure 4. Ice thicknesses along marked ice hole lines (black dots along blue lines) of fl oe B1.S2 with the icebreaker lo-cated along the y-axis between x= -50 m and x= +50 m; the pattern make a shape of a chair. The 3 EM fi ght passes are also shown as blue lines and run parallel to the ice breaker (seat of the chair). The ice thicknesses EM red and green) and NRC drill hole (black dots along black lines) are plotted rela-tive to these blue lines as 10 m for 50 m xy distances.

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40% of the time. Most of the pack ice 60-80% consisted of ice (including melt ponds) thinner than 4 m.

The EM sled and EM helicopter sensor can also pro-vide the bulk conductivity of the ice layer the EM signal travels through. Since the ice strength is related to the amount of brine pockets, the relative bulk ice conduc-tivity can indicate the difference in ice strength between parts of the pack ice. Such variability in ice conductiv-ity was observed between the two MY ice fl oes B1.S1 and B1.S2 sampled with the conductivity of fl oe B1.S1 being larger than the conductivity of fl oe B1.S2 (Fig-ure 4). Further analysis and comparison with NRC ice strength data is currently underway.

Four parallel EM-GPR lines (shown in Figure 5) were fl own in the NW direction and four video lines were fl own back at 100 m altitude in the SW direction. The main concern with these data, and any summer EM data, is the presence of melt ponds within the large fl oe itself. These melt ponds are protected from wind waves and their associated mixing. It appears the melt water within the melt ponds are not well mixed with the un-der-laying ocean waters. They thus appear as ice thick-ness of 2-2.5 m with the ice fl oe, and this effect disap-

pears at the edges of the fl ow were the wave mixing is present. Over 40% of the area surveyed over this MY ice consistently showed ice thickness values between 4 and 10 m even though a large fraction of the thinner ice surveyed (60%) contained melt ponds. Further analysis is ongoing to see if the fraction of melt ponds along each fl ight line can be inferred from laser brightness or GPR data.

The video camera, along with a second laser collects data along line sections (normally return EM line paths) at 300-400 ft. At this height the video frame covers an area of 300-400 ft along the fl ight line and automati-cally calculates the frame sampling rate for 40% over-lap between frames from the ground speed and fl ight height. Figure 6 shows several frame images pasted to-gether from an over-fl ight of the ship while it was on site B1-S2. A fl ight line just above this line captured more people on the ice and was also put together and shown below.

Sea ice dynamics and physical properties were also key areas of research this season. Figure 7 shows a prelimi-nary drift map of the 10 Canatec beacons deployed dur-ing Leg 2A 2011. Note the inertial loops within the yel-low and pink tracks. From this data divergence events can be monitored, while overall motion can be related to atmospheric forcing fi elds.

Several physical characteristics, such as ice thickness and temperature and salinity profi les were collected at physical sampling sites. In total 6 sites were sampled.

Figure 6. Photo mosaic created by combining imagery col-lected from the helicopter video system.

Figure 5. One of the regional ice survey ice thickness distri-bution over the large ice fl oe north of Floe B1.S1 the CCGS Amundsen was anchored to.

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Generally all sites were multiyear ice with similar lin-early decreasing temperature profi les (1.0 to -1.5°C) and increasing salinity profi les (0 – 6.0 ppt). However a very old fl oe > 100 feet thick (B1S2R1) was sampled and while the temperature profi le remained consistent with the others, the salinity profi le was very fresh with salinities between 0 – 0.5 ppt. Figure 8 shows ice tem-perature and salinity profi les and the profi les collected from site B1S2R1.

A Radiometrics temperature and water vapour 3000A profi ling radiometer (TP/WVP3000A) was used to measure the temperature and water vapour within the atmosphere up to 10 km using passive microwave ra-diometry. Historical radiosonde data from Inuvik N.T. was used to develop neural network coeffi cients for the southern Beaufort Sea Region. Of particular interest this year was the use of this instrument to investigate temperature and water vapour gradients by comparing scans from port, starboard, and directly above (zenith) the instrument. Results are presented from a period where the ship was moored to an ice fl oe, with open water on the other side (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Shows the off zenith angle scans, (top panel is star-board, middle panel is port) and the bottom panel shows the zenith scan from August 19th 2000 UTC to August 21st 1800 UTC.

Figure 7. Ice motion map from the 10 Canatec beacons de-ployed during Leg 2A.

Figure 8. Ice temperature and salinity profi les and the pro-fi les collected from site B1S2R1.

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Resolute (Arctic-ICE)

During the Arctic-ICE campaign in Resolute, research-ers collected snow pits and also imaged the pits using an IR camera (Figure 10). An intense observation period (7-28 May) was complete, at which time snow pits were dug up to six times each day.

LiDAR measurements of the sea ice surface were taken during the melt season (J. Landy). During this time, the same area of smooth fi rst year ice was monitored daily, recording LiDAR images each day (Figure 11).

DISCUSSION

LiDAR data collection activities yielded a very interest-ing dataset of sea ice and meltpond surface roughness information. Registered LiDAR data have a spatial res-olution of approximately 3 cm and in most cases ponds appear to absorb the green light totally. However, over the large pond to the left of the site (Figure 2) there are consistent returns from the surface acquired from one of the scan positions. It is hypothesized that solar ra-diation refl ecting off the pond surface directly opposite to the scanner during this one scan was strong enough to register in the sensor as returning laser energy. Fig-ure 3 emphasizes how well the laser scanner picked up the larger-scale ridges/hummocks and pond features at Block 1 Site 2.

Figure 11. LiDAR data viewed from the same perspective at four intervals over the sampling period. Orange-coloured Li-DAR points can be seen over snow and ice, and dark areas where the laser was absorbed can be seen over water (melt ponds).

Figure 10. Non-calibrated examples of (a) traditional micro-photographs, and (b) non-calibrated InfraRed (IR) thermogra-phy.

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Ice beacon survival rates were again affected by a de-layed freeze-up and stormy conditions. Many of the ice beacons deployed during the 2011 fi eld season were lost weeks, and sometimes only days after their deployment. Combined with long fetch distances in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, it is likely that storms produced large waves and possibly long-period swells that introduced mechanical stresses into the ice pack (Asplin et al., in review).

The use of the Radiometrics profi ling radiometer to ex-amine gradients of temperature and water vapour in a marginal ice zone is a novel area of research as few such instruments presently operate anywhere in the Arctic. Validation of these datasets has shown that they are ef-fective at describing the atmosphere above the marginal ice zone to about 1500 m (Candlish et al., in press). It is therefore surmised that the profi les being observed port and starboard of the ship over different surfaces (i.e. over sea ice and open water), will represent dif-ferent near-surface atmospheres. We intend to continue this experiment in future fi eld seasons, as well as other locations as it represents a new method to profi le po-tential near-surface atmospheric transport of heat and water vapour.

With the renewed interest in oil & gas exploration in the southern Canadian Beaufort Sea and with pack ice changes occurring due to global climate change, it is important to continue to build up the snow and ice database to understand what pack ice environmental conditions will be encountered by the hydrocarbon industry. The pack ice conditions and variability are a data-knowledge gap for safe and effi cient oil & gas exploration and development. Operators and regulators including the northern Inuit Hunter and Trapper Com-mittees require this information to ensure that any de-velopment is done in a manner to minimize risk to the marine ecosystem.

The helicopter-borne sensor technology has matured and is backed by proven reliable contractors. ArcticNet (Barber) has acquired a duplicate system and the Impe-rial Oil personnel at ExxonMobil Upstream Research Centre in Houston (Dmitri Matskevitch) were interest-

ed during the summer 2011 survey in seeing the EM system in operation as part of their effort to develop ice managing technologies to identify with SAR images and track ice hazards in near real time.

The problems this project is addressing include: 1) “the scarcity of data sets for snow and ice thickness distribu-tion in the Arctic” in general, but in particular for Can-ada in the coastal waters of the Mackenzie Delta where active oil and gas exploration is occurring and 2) “de-velopment of ice managing technologies to identify and track ice hazards”. This project is planning to fi ll that data gap by collecting snow and thickness data from the land-fast and mobile ice cover off the Mackenzie Delta with proven helicopter sensors during DFO and or Arc-ticNet ice surveys. Already we see from the CASES and CFL data that the pack ice properties are very sensitive to atmospheric conditions (Prinsenberg et al. 2011) and that the increased summer open water conditions in-crease the existence of long period waves that break up the remaining pack ice and increase the pack ice decay (Barber et al. 2009, Asplin et al. in review).

Use of an IR camera for snow pits is a potentially more accurate means of identifying snow temperature gra-dient. This is important in understanding the thermal properties of the snow – therefore thermal conductivity across it.

LiDAR sampling allows for precise measurements of the timing of melt pond development and drainage (evolution), as well as spatial distribution of ponds and temporal melt pond characteristics (water depth for ex-ample).

Ice-bottom algae research (K. Campbell) shows the development, peak, and decay of the ice algae bloom. Sampling a single algae population over time provides a true time series that cannot be achieved with traditional core based sampling. Physical measurements collected coincident with this data are being looked at in an effort to explain why the algae peaks when it does and what causes the rapid decline in biomass.

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CONCLUSION

The Arctic sea icescape is currently in rapid transi-tion. The icescape now consists of a small proportion of multi-year sea ice and a relatively large proportion of annual ice. The continuing decline of Arctic sea ice is apparent in the Southern Beaufort Sea, particularly during the summer. Ice conditions again revealed a se-verely receded ice edge, which consisted primarily of heavily-decayed, small fi rst and second-year ice fl oes, somewhat resembling the rotten ice cover described in detail by Barber et al. (2009). The timing of ice forma-tion and decay has also changed as have the rates of these changes. We continue to observe delayed freeze-up in the southern Beaufort Sea, similar to that observed during the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study in Au-tumn 2007 (Barber et al. 2010). The impacts of this have been detailed in two special issue publications from the International Polar Year (IPY) for the ‘cause’ of this change (Barber et al. 2012a) and the ‘consequences’ of this change (Barber et al. 2012b).

The geophysical state of sea ice has signifi cant implica-tions for how the physical system evolves in the Arctic and how the marine ecosystem, contaminant transport pathways, and human use of these icescapes evolve. The results presented in this report represent knowledge required to underpin policy decisions required to man-age the changes currently ongoing in the Arctic. Fur-thermore, the interface between northern communities and arctic science programs needs to be strengthened so that traditional knowledge can be appropriately cap-tured in the future as the climate of the Arctic continues to change, and so that we can continue to communi-cate our fi ndings in turn to those who will most be im-pacted directly and indirectly by the impacts of climate change. Toward that end we have begun a project to use Inuvialuit traditional knowledge of sea ice deformation (captured by team 10 of CFL) in a study of sea ice dy-namics, using ice beacons and remote sensing estimates of ice motion in the fall. This project is a direct evolu-tion of the two-ways-of-knowing concept that was im-plemented during the IPY-CFL project.

The ArcticNet sea ice project will conduct a number of fi eld programs in 2012. We will participate in a CERC funded fi eld research project in Young Sound (NE Greenland) during the month of March 2012. This pro-ject seeks to examine the role of open water (polynya) relative to fast ice, on carbon fl uxes across the ocean-sea ice-atmosphere interface. Our team will also partici-pate in the annual Resolute project (Arctic-ICE). This year the project will have a fi eld site located just out-side of Resolute Passage and will occur from April 20 to July 5, 2012. Objectives for this work focus primary on the geophysical and thermodynamic controls of sea ice on radiative exchange and development of primary production under this late season ice. The Sea Ice team will also participate in a cruise on the MV Aaron in Au-gust of 2012. We have been invited to participate with the Korean’s on a fi eld program in the Pacifi c sector of the Arctic. Thus even without the Amundsen being ac-tive this summer our team will continue with extensive fi eldwork.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the Captains and crew of the CCGS Amundsen and the Canadian Coast Guard. We would also like to thank Keith Levesque, Martin Fortier and Louis Fortier at ArcticNet. Many thanks go to BP and Imperial Oil, who funded much of our ice program in 2011. Additional cash and in-kind contributions have come from Department of Fisheries and Ocean Mari-time Region (DFO-BIO), Program of Energy Research and Development (PERD), Environmental Science Re-volving Fund (ESRF), Canadian Space Agency GRIP program (CSA), NSERC Discovery Grant to J. Yackel and D. Barber, the Churchill Northern Studies Centre (CNSC), the Finnish Meteorological Institute (Glob-Snow), the Arctic Institute of North America, Environ-ment Canada – Climate Research Division, and Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) program. Many thanks also go to the Centre for Earth Observations Science (CEOS), University of Calgary, Canadian Ice Service, ESA (CoReH20), NASA, University of Mani-toba, Universite de Quebec a Rimouski and DFO-BIO for their in-kind support and partnerships.

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REFERENCES

Asplin, M.G., Galley, R.J., Barber, D.G., Prinsenberg, S. 2011. Fracture of summer perennial sea ice by ocean swell as a result of Arctic storms, Journal of Geophysi-cal Research, doi:10.1029/2011JC007221.

Barber, D.G., Lukovich, J.V. 2011. Sea Ice in Canada, 2011. In French, H. Slaymaker, O. (Eds) Changing Cold Environments - A Canadian Perspective. 340 pp.

Barber, D.G., Asplin, M.G., Candlish, L., Nickels, S., Scharien, R., Hochheim, K., Lukovich, J., Galley, R. 2012a. Change and variability in sea ice during the 2007 – 2008 Canadian international polar year program. Cli-matic Change 115: 115-133.

Barber, D.G., Asplin, M.G., Papakyriakou, T., Miller, L., Iacozza, J., Mundy, C.J., Asselin, N., Ferguson, S., Stern, G., Pucko, M., Wang, F. 2012b. Consequences of change and variability in sea ice during the 2007-2008 Canadian international polar year program. Climatic Change 115: 135-159.

Barber, D.G., Asplin, M., Gratton, Y., Lukovich, J., Galley, R., Raddatz, R., Leitch, D. 2010. The Interna- tional Polar Year (IPY) Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) System Study: Introduction and Physical System, At- mosphere-Ocean, doi: 10.3137/OC317.2010.

Barber, D.G., Galley, R., Asplin, M., De Abreu, R., Warner, K.A., Pucko, M., Gupta, M., Prinsenberg, S., Julien, S. 2009. Perennial pack ice in the southern Beaufort Sea was not as it appeared in the summer of 2009, Geophysical Research Letters 36, L24501, doi:10.1029/2009GL041434.

Candlish, L, Raddatz. R.L., Asplin, M.G., Barber, D.G. 2011. Veracity of atmospheric temperature and absolute humidity profi les over the Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf from a microwave radiometer, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, In review.

Galley, R., Hwang, B.J, Barber, D.G., Key, E., Ehn, J.K. 2008. Spatial and Temporal variability of Sea Ice in the CASES Study Region: 1980 – 2004, Journal of Geophysical Research, 113, C05S95, doi:10.1029/2007JC004553.

Prinsenberg, S.J. and I.K. Peterson, 2011. Observing regional-scale pack ice decay processes with helicop-ter-borne sensors and moored Upward Looking Sonars. Annals of Glaciology 52(57): 1-8.

Stroeve, J.C., Serreze, M.C., Holland, M.M., Kay, J.E., Malanik, J., Barrett, A.P. 2011. The Arctic’s rapidly shrinking sea ice cover: a research synthesis, Climatic Change, doi 10.1007/s10584-011-0101-1.

2011-12 PUBLICATIONS

All ArcticNet refereed publications are available on the ASTIS website (http://www.aina.ucalgary.ca/arcticnet/).

Asplin, M.G., Candlish, L., Galley, R.J., Raddatz, R.L., Barber, D.G., 2011, Cyclone forced lead formation and ocean-sea ice-atmosphere coupling within a fl aw lead region, Journal of Geophysical Research.

Asplin, M.G., Galley, R.J., Barber, D.G., Prinsenberg, S., 2011, Fracture of summer perennial sea ice by ocean swell as a result of Arctic storms, Journal of Geophysi-cal Research.

Asselin NC, Barber DG, Stirling I, Ferguson SH, Rich-ard PR., 2011, Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) habitat selection in the eastern Beaufort Sea in spring, 1975 to 1979., Polar Biology, v. 34, 1973-1988.

Asselin, N. C., D. G. Barber, P. R. Richard, and S. H. Ferguson, 2012, Occurrence, distribution and behaviour of beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) and bowhead (Bal-aena mysticetus) whales at the Franklin Bay ice edge in June 2008, Arctic.

Bajzak, C.E., M.O. Hammill, G.B. Stenson, and S. Prin-senberg, 2011, Drifting away: Implications of changes in ice conditions for a pack-ice-breeding phocid, the

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harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus), Can. J. Zool., v. 89, 1050-1062.

Barber, D.G. and J.V. Lukovich, 2011, Sea Ice in Can-ada, 2011, in Changing Cold Environments - A Cana-dian Perspective, edited by French, H. and O. Slaymak-er, 340 pp.

Barber, D.G., M.G. Asplin, L. Candlish, S. Nickels, R. Scharien, K. Hochheim, J. Lukovich, and R. Gal-ley, 2012, Causes of change and variability in sea ice during the 2007 – 2008 Canadian international polar year program, Climatic Change.

Barber, D.G., M.G. Asplin, T. Papakyriakou, L. Miller, J. Iacozza, C.J. Mundy, N. Asselin, S. Ferguson , G. Stern, M. Pucko and F. Wang, 2012, Consequences of change and variability in sea ice during the 2007-2008 Canadian international polar year program, Climatic Change.

Candlish, L, Raddatz. R.L., Asplin, M.G., Barber, D.G., 2011, Veracity of atmospheric temperature and absolute humidity profi les over the Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf from a microwave radiometer, J. At-mos. Oceano. Tech.

Candlish, L.M., R.L. Raddatz, M.G. Asplin and D.G. Barber, 2011, On the Use of CloudSat and Calipso to Study Clouds Over the Southern Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf, Journal of Geophysical Research.

Chaulk, A., Stern,G., Armstrong, D., Barber, D.G., and Wang, F., 2011, Mercury Distribution and Trans-port across the Ocean-Sea Ice-Atmosphere Interface in the Western Arctic Ocean, Environmental Science and Technology, v. 45(5), 1866-1872.

Derksen ,C., Toose, P., Lemmetyinen, J., Pulliainen, J., Langlois, A., Rutter, N., Fuller, M.C., 2012, Evaluation of passive microwave brightness temperature simula-tions and snow water equivalent retrievals through a winter season, Remote Sensing of the Environment, v. 117, 236-248.

Ehn, J.E., C. J. Mundy, D. G. Barber, H. Hop, A. Ross-nagel, and J. Stewart, 2011, Impact of horizontal spread-ing on light propagation in melt pond covered seasonal sea ice in the Canadian Arctic, Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 116, C00G02, doi:10.1029/2010JC006908.

Fuller, M., Hossain, M., Yackel, J.J., 2011, Polarimet-ric Radar Response to Snow on Smooth First-Year Sea Ice, Canadian Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Department of Geography, University of Cal-gary, 1.

Fuller, M.C., Gill, J.P.S., Hossain, M., Yackel, J.J., 2012, Observations of complexly-layered snow on fi rst-year sea ice using microwave remote sensing, Jour-nal of Geophysical Research - Oceans.

Galley, R.J., B.G.T. Else, J.V. Lukovich, S.E.L. Howell, and D.G. Barber, 2012, Landfast sea ice Conditions in the Canadian Arctic: 1983-2009, Arctic.

Galley, R.J., B.G.T. Else, S.J. Prinsenberg, and D.G. Barber, 2011, Sea ice concentration, extent, age, motion and thickness in regions of proposed offshore oil and gas development near the Mackenzie Delta - Canadian Beaufort Sea, Arctic.

Geoffroy M., Robert D., Darnis G., Fortier L., 2011, The aggregation of polar cod (Boreogadus saida) in the deep Atlantic layer of ice-covered Amundsen Gulf (Beaufort Sea) in winter, Polar Biology, 1-13.

Gill, J.P.S., Yackel, J., 2011, Polarimetric SAR Signa-tures of Snow on Land-fast First Year Sea Ice, Journal of Geophysical Research.

Gill, J.P.S., Yackel, J., 2011, Evaluation of C-Band SAR Polarimetric Parameters for Discrimination of First Year Sea Ice Types-Part 1, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing.

Gupta, M., Barber, D.G., Isleifson, D., and Scharien R.K., 2011, Detection and classifi cation of surface roughness in an Arctic marginal sea ice zone, Hydro-logical Processes.

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Gupta, M., Isleifson, D., Scharien, R.K., and Barber, D.G.,, 2011, Using C-Band Polarimetric Coherences and Ratios to Detect Sea Ice Surface Roughness in the Marginal Ice Zone, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

Hochheim, K., Lukovich, J.V., Barber, D.G., 2011, At-mospheric forcing of sea ice in Hudson Bay during the spring season, 1980 - 2005, Journal of Marine Systems, 88(3), 476-487.

Hop, H., C.J. Mundy, M. Gosselin, A. Rossnagel and D.G. Barber, 2011, Zooplankton boom and ice amphi-pod bust below melting sea ice in the Amundsen Gulf, Arctic Canada, Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 116, 1947-1958, doi: 10.1007/s00300-011-0991-4.

Hossain, M., Yackel, J.J., 2011, Evaluation of Micro-wave signature on snow covered sea ice, 48th Annual Science Conference on March 18, 2011, Department of Geography. University of Calgary, Oral presentation.

Isleifson, D., Jeffrey, I., Shafai, L., LoVetri, J., Barber, D.G., 2011, A Monte Carlo Method for Simulating Scat-tering from Sea Ice using FVTD, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

Lukovich, J.V., Babb, D., Barber, D.G.,, 2011, On the scaling laws derived from ice beacon trajecto-ries in the Southern Beaufort Sea during the IPY-CFL study, 2007-2008, Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 116, C00G07, doi:10.1029/2011JC007049.

Mundy. C.J., M. Gosselin, J. K. Ehn, C. Belzile, M. Poulin, E. Alou, S. Roy, H. Hop, S. Lessard, T.N. Papa-kyriakou, D. G. Barber, and J. Stewart, 2011, Charac-teristics of two distinct high-light acclimated algal com-munities during advanced stages of sea ice melt, Polar Biol., v. 34(12), 1869-1886.

Nghiem, S.V., Rigor, I.G., Richter, A., Burrows, J.P., Shepson, P.B., Bottenheim, J.W., Barber, D.G., Steffen, A., Latonas, J.R., Wang, F., Stern, G.A., Clemente-Co-

lon, P., Martin, S., Hail, D.K., Kaleschike, L., Tackett, P.J., Nuemann, G., and Asplin, M.G., 2012, Field and satellite observations of the formation an distribution of Arctic atmospheric bromine above a rejuvenated sea ice cover, Journal of Geophysical Research, doi: 10.1029/2011JD016268.

Palmer M, K.R. Arrigo, C.J. Mundy, J.K. Ehn. M. Gosselin, D.G. Barber, J. Martin, E. Alou, S. Roy, and J.É. Tremblay, 2011, Spatial and temporal variation of photosynthetic parameters in natural phytoplankton as-semblages in the Beaufort Sea, Polar Biol., v. 34(12), doi:10.1007/s00300-011-1050-x, 1915-1928.

Prinsenberg, S.J., I K. Peterson, S. Holladay and L. Lalumiere, 2011, Snow and Ice thickness properties of Lake Melville, a Canadian Fjord located along the Lab-rador Coast, Proc. of the 21th (2011) Inter. Offshore and Polar Eng. Conf., Maui, Hawaii, 7 pp.

Prinsenberg, S.J., I.K. Peterson, S. Holladay and L. Lalumiere, 2011, Observing the snow and ice prop-erties over the Labrador shelf with helicopter-borne Ground-Penetrating Radar, Laser and Electromagnetic sensors, POAC’11, 21th Inter. Conf. on Port and Ocean Eng. Under Arctic Conditions, 13 pp.

Pucko, M., Stern, G.A., Macdonald, R.W., Barber, D.G., Rosenberg, B., Walkusz, W., 2012, When will a-HCH disappear from the western Arctic Ocean?, Jour-nal of Marine Systems.

Pucko, M., Stern, G.A., Macdonald, R.W., Rosen-berg, B., and Barber, D.G., 2011, The infl uence of atmosphere-snow-ice-ocean interactions on the lev-els of hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) in the Arctic cryosphere, Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, v.116, C02035, doi:10.1029/2010JC006614.

Raddatz, R.L., Galley, R.J., Asplin, M.G., Candlish, L. and Barber, D.G., 2012, Linking change in the thermal structure of the atmospheric boundary layer and lower free atmosphere over Amundsen Gulf to profi les of heat fl ux divergence, Boundary Layer Meteorology.

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Raddatz, R.L., Galley, R.J., Barber, D.G., 2011, Link-ing the Atmospheric Boundary Layer to Amundsen Gulf Sea Ice: a meso- to synoptic-scale perspective from winter to summer 2008, Boundary Layer Meteorology, v.142, 123-148.

Rysgaard S., J. Bendtsen, B. Delille, G.S. Dieckmann, R.N. Glud, H. Kennedy, J. Mortensen, S. Papadimitriou, D.N. Thomas, J.-L. Tison, 2011, Sea ice contribution to the air-sea CO2 exchange in the Arctic and Southern Oceans, Tellus B, v. 63(5), 823-830.

Scharien, R.K., J.J. Yackel, D.G. Barber, M. Asplin, and M. Gupta, 2011, Geophysical and morphological controls on in situ C band polarimetric scattering from melt pond covered Arctic fi rst-year sea ice, Journal of Geophysical Research.

Seabrook, J., Whiteway, J., Staebler, R.M., Bottenheim, J.W., Komguem, L., Gray, L.H., Barber, D. and Asp-lin, M., 2011, LIDAR measurements of Arctic Bound-ary Layer Ozone Depletion Events Over the Frozen Arctic Ocean, Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 116, D00S02, doi:10.1029/2011JD016335.

Shadwick, E.H., H. Thomas, M. Chierici, B. Else, A. Fransson, C. Michel, L.A. Miller, A. Mucci, A. Niemi, T.N. Papakyriakou, and J.-É. Tremblay, 2011, Sea-sonal variability of the inorganic carbon system in the Amundsen Gulf region of the southeastern Beaufort Sea, Limnol. Oceanog., v. 56(1), 303-322.

Tremblay, J.E., Belanger, S., Barber, D.G., Asplin, M., Martin, J., Darnis, G., Fortier, L., Gratton, Y., Link, H., Archambault, P., Sallon, A., Michel, C., Williams, W.G., Phillipe, B., Gosselin, M., 2011, Climate forcing multiplies biological productivity in the coastal Arc-tic Ocean, Geophysical Research Letters, 38, L18604. doi:10.1029/2011GL048825.

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