Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

Sea Ice Observations during Southern Ocean GLOBEC

Sea ice observations on the Southern Ocean GLOBEC cruises were conducted according to standardized protocols developed and utilized by members of the Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate working group (co-sponsored by SCAR and GlOCHANT).

Related datasets:
ice properties, ice thickness, snow pits

More details regarding methodology can be found at http://www.scar.org/GLOCHANT/ASPeCt/seaiceobs.htm or by contacting Dr. C.H. Fritsen at cfritsen@dri.edu.

OPEN WATER (OpnWtrCode):
Code --- Description
0 --- No openings
1 --- Small cracks
2 --- Very narrow breaks, <50m
3 --- Narrow breaks, 50-200 m
4 --- Wide breaks, 200-500 m
5 --- Very wide breaks, >500 m
6 --- Lead/coastal lead
7 --- Polynya/coastal polynya
8 --- Water broken only by small scattered floes
9 --- Open sea

ICE CONCn (IceCon): to be expressed in tenths.

ICE TYPE (ITypeCode):
Code --- Description
10 --- Frazil
11 --- Shuga
12 --- Grease
20 -- Nilas
30 --- Pancakes
40 --- Young grey ice, 0.1-0.15 m
50 --- Young grey-white ice, 0.15-0.3 m
60 --- First year, 0.3-0.7 m
70 --- First year, 0.7-1.2 m
80 --- First year, >1.2 m
85 --- Multiyear floes
90 --- Brash
95 --- Fast ice

SEA ICE (IThkns) AND SNOWTHICKNESS (SnoThkns): to be expressed in centimetres.

FLOE SIZE (FloSzCode):
Code --- Description
100 --- Pancakes
200 --- New sheet ice
300 --- Brash/broken ice
400 --- Cake ice, <20 m
500 --- Small floes, 20-100 m
600 --- Medium floes, 100-500 m
700 --- Large floes, 500-2000 m
800 --- Vast floes, >2000 m

SNOW TYPE (SnoTypCode):
Code --- Description
0 --- No snow observation
1 --- No snow, no ice or brash
2 --- Cold new snow, < 1 day old
3 --- Cold old snow
4 --- Cold wind-packed snow
5 --- New melting snow (wet new snow)
6 --- Old melting snow
7 --- Glaze
8 --- Melt slush
9 --- Melt puddles
10 --- Saturated snow (waves)
11 --- Sastrugi

The following weather observation codes and descriptions are from the "National Weather Service Observing Handbook No. 1", Marine Surface Weather Observations, August 1995. U.S. Department of Commerce, Silver Spring, MD.

VISIBILITY (visib):
Code --- Visibility in m/km
90 --- less than 50 m
91 --- 50 but less than 200 m
92 --- 200 but less than 500 m
93 --- 500 but less than 1000 m
94 --- > 1 but less than 2 km
95 --- > 2 but less than 4 km
96 --- > 4 but less than 10 km
97 --- > 10 but less than 20 km
98 --- > 20 but less than 50 km
99 --- > 50 km or more

TOTAL CLOUD COVER (cldcvr): to be expressed in eighths; -1 = Sky obscured by fog, snow or other met. phenom.

Sea ice observations on the Southern Ocean GLOBEC cruises were conducted according to standardized protocols developed and utilized by members of the Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate working group (co-sponsored by SCAR and GlOCHANT).

Routine observations of sea ice and snow characteristics were routinely collected on an hourly basis while the L.M. Gould was actively steaming throughout the cruise. These observations began on 26 July 2001 and continued through 27 August 2001. The observational protocol followed during the cruise was the protocol that is formally endorsed by the SCAR ASPeCt (Antarctic Sea ice Processes and Climate) program for observing sea ice characteristics. In short, our program (combined efforts of BG-244 as well as OG-241) was able to gather the information that will be used to characterize the predominate types of ice in the region according to parameters, such as areal coverage, floe size, ice thickness, snow type, snow thickness and deformation.

More details regarding methodology can be found at http://www.scar.org/GLOCHANT/ASPeCt/seaiceobs.htm or by contacting Dr. C.H. Fritsen at cfritsen@dri.edu.

The fundamental objectives of United States Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (U.S. GLOBEC) Program are dependent upon the cooperation of scientists from several disciplines. Physicists, biologists, and chemists must make use of data collected during U.S. GLOBEC field programs to further our understanding of the interplay of physics, biology, and chemistry. Our objectives require quantitative analysis of interdisciplinary data sets and, therefore, data must be exchanged between researchers. To extract the full scientific value, data must be made available to the scientific community on a timely basis.

The U.S. Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (U.S. GLOBEC) program has the goal of understanding and ultimately predicting how populations of marine animal species respond to natural and anthropogenic changes in climate. Research in the Southern Ocean (SO) indicates strong coupling between climatic processes and ecosystem dynamics via the annual formation and destruction of sea ice. The Southern Ocean GLOBEC Program (SO GLOBEC) will investigate the dynamic relationship between physical processes and ecosystem responses through identification of critical parameters that affect the distribution, abundance and population dynamics of target species. The overall goals of the SO GLOBEC program are to elucidate shelf circulation processes and their effect on sea ice formation and krill distribution, and to examine the factors which govern krill survivorship and availability to higher trophic levels, including penguins, seals and whales. The focus of the U.S. contribution to the international SO GLOBEC program will be on winter processes. This component will focus on the distribution and activities of sea ice microbial communities. This will be accomplished using an integrated combination of sampling (vertical profiles, horizontal surveys, and under-ice surveys) and observational protocols. Experiments will be designed to estimate microbial activity within the sea ice and at the ice-seawater interface. The research will be coordinated with components studying the water column productivity and the sea ice habitat. The result of the integrated SO GLOBEC program will be to improve the predictability of living marine resources, especially with respect to local and global climatic shifts.

U.S. GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics) is a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to address the question of how global climate change may affect the abundance and production of animals in the sea.

The U.S. GLOBEC Program currently had major research efforts underway in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region, and the Northeast Pacific (with components in the California Current and in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska). U.S. GLOBEC was a major contributor to International GLOBEC efforts in the Southern Ocean and Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP).

U.S. GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics) is a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to address the question of how global climate change may affect the abundance and production of animals in the sea.

The U.S. GLOBEC Program currently had major research efforts underway in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region, and the Northeast Pacific (with components in the California Current and in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska). U.S. GLOBEC was a major contributor to International GLOBEC efforts in the Southern Ocean and Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP).