Funded projects
Observations and modelling of coastal polynya and sea ice processes in the Arctic and Antarctic
Prof Peter Wadhams et al.
University of Cambridge & Scottish Association for Marine Science
pw11@cus.cam.ac.uk
Prof Andrew Willmott et al.
University of Keele
a.j.willmott@keele.ac.uk
We will use Autosub to map sea ice thickness and ocean structure in the polynyas off the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica, and, in the Arctic, to map sea ice structure in the Norske Oer Ice Barrier off the 79N Glacier and in Fram Strait in relation to ocean structure. For this purpose the vehicle will be fitted with an upward-looking multibeam sonar. These field studies are integrated with a modelling effort led by Prof Willmott, in which a two-dimensional time-dependent polynya flux model is developed, tested and used to predict polynya size and development.
