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Seasonal Ice Zone Observing Network (SIZONET) |
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Seasonal Ice Zone Observing Network (SIZONET) |
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The first iteration of this observation program meets demands expressed by the scientific community to help improve modeling capabilities and determine whether the Arctic is moving to a new state (as expressed in Study of Environmental ARctic CHange [SEARCH] planning documents) and will help to address these major scientific questions: (1) To what extent are changes in the SIZ at the local level throughout the Arctic correlated with large-scale change in summer minimum ice extent? (2) How does the SIZ respond to amplified ice-albedo feedback in seasonal ice as opposed to the buffering effects of enhanced snow-ice interaction and ice deformation? (3) How strongly does coastal sea ice impact change in terrestrial environments? (4) What does the sub-Arctic Okhotsk Sea teach about impending Arctic environmental and socio-economic change? While the focus of this project is on the Western Arctic, which has seen some of the most dramatic sea-ice reductions in past decades, an international team has been assembled from six nations that maximizes synergies and allows these questions to be addressed in a circum-Arctic context along a latitudinal gradient spanning the entire extent of the seasonal ice zone, well into the perennial ice. |