Monitoring the Western Arctic Boundary Current in a Warming Climate: Mooring activities and Hydrographic Sampling in 2014

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

Monitoring the western Arctic boundary current with a mooring provides information over a complete seasonal cycle at a location that is critical for understanding the fate of the Pacific water in the Arctic and its impact on the ecosystem. Accurate measures of along-stream and cross-stream fluxes of mass, heat, and freshwater are obtained from the mooring. This allows for causal relationships between the physical environment and the ecosystem, ranging from nutrient dynamics up to higher tropics. This project will recover an AON mooring in the western Arctic boundary current at 152°W during mission HLY1402 on the USCGC Healy. During the cruise the team will also carry out a hydrographic survey of the boundary current and do additional mooring work for other ancillary projects. Finally, a mooring will be re-deployed at 152°W using instrumentation that allows for a two-year deployment. This will extend the timeseries until 2016, resulting in 11 years of data from the boundary current. The science party on the Healy cruise this year will include three graduate students, one undergraduate student, and a participant from the MATE internship program. This will provide valuable at-sea experience for these young researchers in a variety of areas.