CAREER: Evolution and Dynamics of the Deep Waters in the Arctic Ocean

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

In stark contrast to the shallower regions of the Arctic Ocean, where significant warming and freshening have been observed, the deepest waters are isolated vertically by strong stratification and laterally by ocean ridges; parts of the deep Arctic Ocean have been effectively inaccessible to new water influxes for hundreds of years. As such, the properties of these water masses can be used as valuable markers of past climate, while future changes to them would be compelling signals of an Arctic climate in transition. This proposal seeks to investigate the origins and history of the deepest waters through analysis of existing data sets and idealized numerical modeling. Such understanding is essential to understand how the deep waters of the Arctic Ocean participate in climate change. This project will address several interrelated observational and dynamical questions: What constrains the evolution of heat and salt in the deep water? How is the deep water influenced by the rest of the Arctic Ocean? What past ocean conditions and mechanisms allowed for the formation of the deep water, and what climate shift may have prompted an end to ventilation of the bottom waters? These aspects of the climate system will be investigated by dynamical process studies constrained by analyses of recent ocean measurements from moored instruments and icebreaker surveys. This project comprises an integrated research, education, and outreach program that implements a tiered mentoring approach to provide experience in Arctic climate research for scholars from high school to postdoctoral level. Education and outreach integrates with Yale University?s well-established Pathways to Science infrastructure: high school students (over half of whom are from traditionally underrepresented groups) will be introduced to Arctic climate science through lectures and laboratory demonstrations, while graduate students will receive teaching and mentoring experience. The project generates opportunities for independent climate research appropriate to a range of skillsets and interests, with high school students being recruited concurrently with undergraduate students for summer research internships. Through an international partnership with the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), undergraduate and graduate students will be introduced to the Arctic environment, learning fundamental concepts of the Arctic climate system through lectures and participating in fieldwork. Students will deploy innovative Arctic instrumentation in the fjords of Svalbard and will then process and interpret the measurements. In collaboration with the Yale Climate and Energy Institute (YCEI) and the International Arctic Science Committee, an international workshop, motivated by the central theme of the proposed research, will bring together researchers across a range of disciplines (including anthropologists, paleoceanographers and contemporary climate scientists) to explore the important relationships between culture and Arctic climate change over the past millennia.