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SIPEX II AUV MERTZ GLACIER CALVING SEAL OCEANOGRAPHY. Update from Guy Williams AUV/Sea Ice Specialist Sea Ice Program Cryosphere. SIPEX II AUV. Major setback after loss of collaboration with Memorial University and long-range AUV capability for Cryosat -II Calibration/Validation
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SIPEX II AUVMERTZ GLACIER CALVINGSEAL OCEANOGRAPHY Update from Guy Williams AUV/Sea Ice Specialist Sea Ice Program Cryosphere
SIPEX II AUV • Major setback after loss of collaboration with Memorial University and long-range AUV capability for Cryosat-II Calibration/Validation • Major comeback with new collaboration with WHOI ‘SeaBed’ vehicle for floe-scale measurements of ice draft during SIPEX-II • Collaborative links with UK ICEBELL mission in the Weddell/Bellingshausen Sea in Nov. 2010 • Better integration with other Ice Station projects • Floe scale survey (500 x 500 m) • 230 kHz multibeam sonar • CTD + ADCP • Hyper spectral radiometer • 4 man team • ~$250—300K • Integrated with surface measurements and ROV program
Important collaborative links with UK ICEBELL mission in the Weddell/Bellingshausen Sea in Nov. 2010 Ice thickness maps from 4 unique ice stations Wilkinson et al., Williams (in prep)
2011 - Timeline • April - Visit to Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS), UK, to establish collaboration with the ICEBELL project. • May - Visit to Hobart by Hanumant Singh (WHOI) to establish AUV contract for SIPEX-II. Meetings with AAD operations and Aurora Australis crew • July - Visit to WHOI, USA, to work with AUV team and ICEBELL project leader on AUV operations for SIPEX and the processing of AUV data from the ICEBELL project. • September - Visit to Hawaii, USA for pre-cruise mobilisation experience with the SEABED vehicle. • Ongoing processing and analysis of ICEBELL data with SAMS and WHOI for co-authorship on upcoming publications from the UK groups.
Impacts of the Mertz Glacier Calving Sea ice via Satellite Analyses Ocean-Ice Modelling Kusahara, Hasumi and Williams, Nature Comm. 2011 • 23% reduction in modelled dense shelf water export • 27-36% decrease in sea ice production • Greater than 0.05 decrease in salinity, equiv. to last 50 years of long-term freshening • Contribution to observed changes in oceanography in Rintoul et al., (in prep) Tamura, Williams, Fraser and Ohshima (in review Nature Geoscience)
Seals as Polar Ocean Observers in the Prydz Bay/Amery Ice Shelf and Cape Darnley regions • Over 15,000 new CTD profiles from elephants seals deployed from Davis Station and Kerguelen Island • Amazing new observations of high salinity shelf water and dense shelf water overflows relevant to Cape Darnley/Prydz Bay Antarctic Bottom Water. • Sea ice growth rate estimates for the McKenzie Bay and Barrier polynyas • Unique summer-fall-winter observations on the continental shelf, across the Amery Ice Shelf and across the southern ocean. 1st author manuscripts near submission for GRL-style journal and the PLoS-ONE Special volume on ‘Trends and Change’ resulting from the Australia-Japan Antarctic Biology workshop in Feb. 2011 with Hindell, Field, Roquet, Tamura and Herraiz-Borreguero