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About OAII |
David C. Kadko
University of Miami
Start Date: May 15, 1997
Expire: April 30, 1999 (Estimated)
Expected Total Amt.: $160,305 (Estimated)
Fld Science: Polar Programs-Related, Climate Related Activities
Abstract:
This research project is an ancillary project to be conducted in conjunction with a large, coordinated, multi-investigator program, Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA) Ocean. The research program will be conducted for 14 months from a ship frozen into the ice pack. This investigator will measure the concentration of Beryllium isotopes in the ice and open areas in the ice where the ocean occurs at the surface to determine how much heat from the melt water is added to the ocean . This research will be important for the determination of the effects of the flux of incoming heat radiating onto the ice floe as a function of changing atmospheric and oceanic conditions. The results will help determine how atmospheric heating is coupled to adsorption of heat by the sea ice and transferred to the ocean during melting. These measurements are important to understanding how heat is reflected or absorbed by the ice as it melts in the summer and thickens in the winter in response to seasonal variations in climate. The combined set of measurements of this project and the larger SHEBA program will allow refinement of climate models for the Arctic region. Those improved models will lead to better predictions of the climate and the permanence of the Arctic ice cap under a proposed global warming that could occur if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are increased above present levels.