Minutes of the

Tenth Annual Meeting of the Participants of the

INTERNATIONAL ARCTIC BUOY PROGRAMME (IABP)

International Arctic Research Center

University of Alaska Fairbanks


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Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, 26 - 28 June, 2000

 

1.0  Opening of the Meeting

 

The tenth annual meeting of the Participants of the IABP opened at 9:00 on June 26, 2000 at the International Arctic Research Center (IARC), University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA. This meeting was held concurrently with the biennial meeting of the International Programme for Antarctic Buoys (IPAB). The Chairman of the IABP, Tim Goos (TG), called the meeting to order. Syun-Ichi Akasofu, the Director of IARC, welcomed the IABP and IPAB attendees and stressed the importance of the buoy data for validation of climate models. Roger Colony provided logistic information for the meeting, and offered a tour or the Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) and IARC. The list of IABP and IPAB attendees is attached (Attachment 1).

 

2.0  Agenda Approval

 

The draft of the agenda was presented. Ignatius Rigor (IR) mentioned that the agenda item "Review and Approval of the IABP Operating Principles" was moved to later in the meeting pending discussions during the meeting and the joint sessions with IPAB. The draft was reviewed, amended and approved (Attachment 2).

 

3.0  Review of the action items from the 9th Annual Meeting of the Participants of the IABP, 1999.

 

As decided at the last meeting, the minutes from that meeting were finalized a few months after that meeting and are available from the IABP web server. IR and TG noted that there were 4 action items from that meeting, which have been resolved as follows:

 

3.1  The terms of Reference for the Coordinator in the IABP Operating Principles were amended to state in item 15 that the Coordinator will "maintain a web page that promotes the IABP, provides access to the IABP datasets, and provides news and information to the Participants and general community."

3.2  A business item for the current meeting will be to discuss provisions for withdrawal from the IABP. This item was included in the Agenda as item 8.1.

3.3  Victor Savtchenko (VS) suggested adopting an International Programme for Antarctic Buoys (IPAB) practice of producing a "Contributions Page." A draft of the IABP Participant Contributions List has been distributed, and IR asked each Participant to review this list and make comments to the Coordinator for the final version, which will be included in the final minutes of this meeting and placed on our web pages. Please refer to section 8.1 of these minutes for the decisions of the participants (The Participants Contributions table is given in attachment 6).

3.4  A discussion of the status of the UKMO as an IABP Participant was noted for item 6.0 of the Agenda, "Status of Membership and Letters of Intent."

 

4.0  Coordinator's Report

 

IR reported on: 1.) the developments in the buoy array during the past year, 2.) deployment plans for the year, 3.) improvements to the IABP Web pages, 4. ) CDROMs, and on 5.) the progress of publications related to the IABP.

 

On our last meeting, 25 buoys were reporting in the Arctic. Since then, 13 buoys ceased transmitting, and 21 buoys were deployed:

·        7 by WHITE TRIDENT (ICEX-AIRS contributed by  AWI, EC, NIC, NPI, UKMO) in August 1999.

·        2 by AARI/NAVO in Spring 2000.

·        5 by EC (2 EC, 2 NIC/CES, 1 Calib) in Spring 2000.

·        7 by PSC (1 JAMSTEC, 2 AWI, 2 PMEL, 2 CRREL) in Spring 2000.

 

The current map shows 33 buoys. A map of the planned deployments was shown. A list of other deployment opportunities was also shown.

 

It was noted that the Beaufort and the North Pole (NP) was saturated with buoys, but a big hole in the array exists in the East Arctic. VS also stated a need found by the WCRP ACSYS SSG to deploy buoys in the Marginal Seas of the Arctic Ocean. It was decided that the need to discuss strategies for deployment in the East Arctic and the Marginal Seas will be added to the Agenda as item11.2.

 

Ed Hudson (ETH) noted that the "AARI" buoys on the Buoy table have been listed as "NAVO." EH also asked if variations of the buoy maps could be made regularly. IR agreed to use different symbols on the buoy map for buoys with Pressure and Temperature sensors, and will make special maps when requested.

 

The IABP web server is currently visited by 1000 different users each month. A number of new web pages have been added, most notably: 1.) a page collecting all of the ocean buoy data, 2.) a page summarizing the last 20 years of buoy data which will be updated regularly, 3.) a page of animations of the buoy data, and 4.) a page of "News" on the IABP. IR requests that the Coordinator be notified of any news items that are related to the IABP so the web pages can be updated.

 

IR also reported that the IABP SAT and ice motion fields will be on the EWG Arctic Ocean Meteorology and Sea Ice digital atlases. A CD on Animations of the buoy data is in preparation with IARC. RC reported that the intention for this CD is to make a product that could be use to as a teaching aid to study air, sea and ice interaction.

 

A draft of the 1999 buoy report and reprints of the recent J. Climate paper on "Variations in SAT" were made available.

 

The powerpoint presentation of this report is available on the web (Reports\Coord.ppt).

 

5.0  Report from Data Buoy Co-operation Panel (DBCP)

 

The full report of the DBCP is given in attachment 4.

 

6.0  Status Report on the Membership and Letters of Intent

 

IR reported that the IABP currently has 26 Participants, from 10 different countries and 1 international organization. The IABP has a new member, IARC, who will be represented by Roger Colony.

 

IR noted that the UKMO was not represented at the meeting. It was decided that Elizabeth Horton (EH) would contact Wynn Jones to discuss their intentions.

 

The list of IABP Participants is given in attachment 5.

 

7.0  Status Report from each Participant

 

7.1  World Climate Research Programme (VS)

 

The ACSYS SSG-VIII (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 15-19 November 1999) underlined that the International Arctic Buoy Programme (IABP) was the mainstay of the ACSYS sea-ice motion climatology.  The Group noted that the IABP was focused on the perennial pack of the Arctic Basin.  With its present deployment strategy, it provides little ice-drift information for the seasonal sea-ice zone that constitutes more than half of the ice cover of the Northern Hemisphere.  The Group, therefore:

(i) encouraged continued efforts under IABP and, though recognizing EEZ sensitivities, consideration of extension of buoy network to marginal seas (e.g. Chukchi Sea, Baffin Bay, Sea of Okhotsk, etc); and

(ii) recognizing that its main rationale for implementation is for operations, emphasized the importance of the IABP network for both operations and climate, and so its relevance to the GCOS.

 

At its recent session in Tokyo, Japan (March 2000) the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) for the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) recommended that a Climate and Cryosphere (CLIC) project be established as a major scientific component of WCRP.  A CLIC Science and Co-ordination Plan (version 1.0) is available at WCRP Arctic Climate System Study (ACSYS) home pages.  It may be downloaded from the following web site:

ftp://scott.npolar.no/Out/acsys

An ACSYS Implementation and Achievements document is also available electronically at the following ACSYS web site:

http://www.npolar.no/acsys/impplan/index.htm

To lead the implementation of both ACSYS and CLIC projects, the JSC-XXI has established an ACSYS/CLIC Scientific Steering Group (SSG) chaired by Dr H. Cattle (United Kingdom).

 

7.2  Environment Canada (ETH)

 

The full report of the DBCP is given in attachment 7.

 

7.3  Polar Science Center (IR)

 

The primary contribution of the PSC to the IABP is the Coordination and Data Management of the IABP. Please see the Coordinator's Report, section 4.0 of these minutes.

 

This year the North Pole Environmental Observatory (NPEO), which IR will report on during the Technical Sessions, deployed 7 buoys for the IABP. This is a 4+ year project funded by NSF, the observations for the IABP at the North Pole will be covered by this project for the foreseeable future, and will be an deployment opportunity for the IABP.

 

7.4  Foundation Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI, C. Haas, CH)          

 

In 1999, AWI contributed 2 ICEXAIR buoys to the White Trident program, both deployed in the eastern Sibirian Sea. The buoys are still operating, as of 12 July, 2000, at positions 84.089N, 163.883E and 77.748N, 169.982E. No buoys were deployed by ship because of inappropriate cruises of RVIB  Polarstern to the Arctic Ocean.

 

In 2000, two sea ice drifters (Sellmann&Kruse GbR) were deployed near the pole at 90W as part of the North Pole Environmental Observatory of the Polar Science Center, University of Washington.

We would like to emphasize again that RVIB Polarstern is available for use by IABP participants for buoy deployment. NIC (C. O'Conners) accepted this offer by providing one Coastal Environmental Buoy, to be deployed next year in the central Arctic Ocean (see attached cruise map).

 

7.5  NIC (C. O'Connors)

 

In 1999-2000, the U.S. Interagency Arctic Buoy Program (USIABP) received fiscal support, manpower resources, and other services from seven U.S. Government agencies.   Presently, the USIABP has eleven buoys operating in the buoy network covering the central Arctic Basin and/or adjoining seas. This number includes seven Coastal Environmental System (CES) buoys, three Christian Michelsen Research (CMR) ICEXAIR buoys and one MetOcean buoy.

 

During the past year, the U.S. Navy provided aerial assets and funding for the annual White Trident deployment exercise. All ICEXAIR buoys deployed by White Trident were provided through the cooperative procurements of IABP Participants. Other USIABP activities and IABP contributions included:

1. Continued funding for the IABP Coordinator / Data Management function.

2. Data processing costs for a U.K. Meteorological Office ICEXAIR buoy.

3. Management for the NICOP / U.S. Navy funded Russian buoy development program.

4. Support 1999 Arctic Research activities including the U.S. Navy Submarine Science mission (SCICEX).

 

Anticipated 2000 USIABP activities include:

1. U.S. Navy Science deployment.

2. Coordination of the 2000 White Trident deployment.

3. Coastal Environmental buoy sent to AWI for deployment opportunity.

4. Discussions with CRREL on buoy engineering support and modifications.

5. Management for the NICOP / U.S. Navy funded Russian buoy development program.

 

7.6  Marine Environmental Data Service (MEDS , E. Coutoure)

 

The Marine Environmental Data Service (MEDS), Canada, continues to capture, conduct preliminary quality control and archive the data from GTS as part of its mandate as the Responsible National Oceanographic Data Center (RNODC) for drifting buoys. Statistics from the area north of 66ºN were presented.

 

MEDS new web site (http://www.meds-sdmm.dfo-mpo.gc.ca) was briefly presented to the participants.  MEDS converted the yearly annual report of the RNODC to electronic form, which is now available on-line at http://www.meds-sdmm.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/meds/Prog_Int/RNODC/RNODC_e.html .  These web pages show monthly statistics of the number of messages received though the GTS and statistics on the number of buoys reporting on the GTS, monthly maps of drifting buoy tracks and monthly tabular inventories of all data received at MEDS.  This information is displayed for each individual action group as well as for the whole world.  MEDS will enhance the maps of the drifting buoy tracks by providing more information on each of these tracks such as WMO number, ARGOS ID, etc...

 

MEDS produced a CD of 20 years of drifting buoy data for the area North of 66oN.

 

7.7  Japan Marine Science and Technology (JAMSTEC, T. Kikuchi)

 

JAMSTEC have been developing a new drifting buoy, J-CAD (JAMSTEC Compact Arctic Drifter), in order to monitor the change of the Arctic Ocean.  J-CAD has oceanographic and meteorological sensors, especially ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) that can measure ocean current structure.  Using ORBCOMM satellite communication system, J-CAD reports real-time and in-situ oceanographic and meteorological data to our laboratory.  In 2000 JAMSTEC have two deployment opportunities of J-CAD.  J-CAD 1 has been installed near the North Pole on 24th April 2000, as a component of North Pole Environmental Observatory.  The real-time data of J-CAD is provided on our web site (URL, http://w3.jamstec.go.jp:8338).  J-CAD 2 will be installed in the Beaufort Sea by helicopter operation in the 2000 Arctic cruise of CCGS Sir Wilfred Laurier.

 

7.8  Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI, T. Løyning)

 

The intention of the NPI is to keep one buoy operative in the Polar Ocean.  The buoy that was deployed on behalf of the NPI in 1998 is still operative, and no buoys were deployed in 1999.

 

The Norwegian Ministry of Environment, other political agencies and the Norwegian Research Council, seems to have changed their views on long time series and monitoring. They have realized that in order to get information about the state of the Arctic environment as a basis for proper environmental management decisions, the need for long time series is huge.  The future Norwegian support of the IABP project looks therefore prospective.

 

7.9  CMR (T. Kvinge)

 

7.10         NMI (T. Loyning)

 

7.11         ROSHYDROMET / AARI

In the period between 9-th and 10-th IABP business meetings AARI of Roshydromet have completed the following IABP tasks have been done:

 

1.      Two NAVOCEANO experts have visited AARI in December 1999 for modernization of the LUT software including "Year 2000 problem" elimination

2.      Four so called "fixed buoy" conception have been developed and construction for 4 of them have been done

3.      Two drifting buoys for Arctic ocean have been constructed

4.      In April, 2000 two these buoys have been deployed during Arctic and Antarctic museum expedition to the North Pole

5.      In May, 2000 three of four "fixed buoys" have been installed on Cape Arctichesky, Ushakov and Uedinenia Islands. The fourth, on Zhochov Island in August planned for installation 

6.      As a continuation of the digital Arctic ocean atlases series - The Arctic ocean meteorology atlas have been issued under EWG of US-Russian Joint Commission on economical and technological cooperation activities

7.      In cooperation with IARC Frontier Program the Project, aimed to produce historical data sets and objective analysis fields for Arctic ocean hydrochemistry is under work now

8.      Under the same Cooperation the Project, aimed to collect 1930-th Arctic warming evidences is also carrying now. 

9.      The Items 1-3 done under financial support of US-Interagency Arctic Buoys Program.

 

7.12         International Arctic Research Center (IARC, R. Colony)

 

7.13         Argos

 

7.14         NAVO

 

During the intersessional period, the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) deployed 7 ICEX-AIR drifters for IABP member nations at locations provided by the IABP technical coordinator, in addition to drifters supporting a Commander-In-Charge, Atlantic Fleet requirement and for the European Group on Ocean Stations (EGOS) in August.  NAVOCEANO also provided funding to the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI)for 2 drifting ice buoys and 4 ice weather stations which have been deployed by icebreaker in the same locations as the original Russian ice station network in the Arctic in order to provide continuity of data collection.  NAVOCEANO was especially pleased to be contacted by DBCP members regarding a monument erected by the Dutch on Novaya Zemlya in memory of Dutch sailors who ship-wrecked there 400 years ago in their quest to find a northwest passage to the Far East.  AARI coordinated with the Russian government on behalf of the Ukraine and the Netherlands to install one of the weather stations funded by NAVOCEANO at the Dutch monument.  

 

Last year's WHITE TRIDENT deployment was completed without incident.  Coordination at the ICEX-AIR pick-up site at Patunxent River, Maryland, was excellent.  It took less than an hour to load the buoys onto the aircraft, so that the crew could maintain a tight schedule.  The only difficulty occurred at the drop locations south of 77N.  NAVOCEANO's representative reports that south of 77N in August, the surface is obscured by a thick blanket of ice fog.  The aircraft descends as low as possible to check for open water, in order to avoid deploying through a hole in the ice, but in most cases, it is impossible to see the surface.  NAVOCEANO appreciates the assistance provided by the technical coordinator and Environment Canada for providing updates on ice conditions, and hopes that this support will continue in the future.

 

8.0  New Business

 

8.1  Provisions for withdrawal from the IABP (T. Goos)

 

8.2  Maintaining WHITE TRIDENT (I. Rigor)

 

IR thanked the U.S. Navy for deploying buoys for the IABP during the WHITE TRIDENT flights each year. He also thanked the Participants who have contributed to buoys for this deployment (AWI, EC, JAMSTEC, NPI, NMI, UKMO, and US-IABP).

 

 

The buoy deployed by these flights account for more than half of the data currently collected by the IABP, thus providing buoys to maintain this opportunity is crucial to the success of the IABP. A minimum of 7 buoys are needed each year.

 

The figures IR showed are available on the web at (WTpitch.ppt).

 

8.3  Reports and Representation at the DBCP Annual Meeting (E. Horton)

 

The IABP was represented at the 15th DBCP meeting by E. Horton. The full text of our report is given in attachment 8.

 

8.4  IABP Poster and Brochure (E. Hudson)

 

8.5  DBCP 16 in Victoria, B.C., Canada, on 16-17 October 2000 (T. Goos)

 

TG and IR will represent the IABP at this meeting.

 

8.6  Location of 11th meeting (T. Goos)

 

TK and VS reexpressed the invitations to Japan and Geneva respectively. The Executive Committee will discuss these options during the intersessional period and will notify the Participants and prospective hosts.

 

8.7  Review Participant Contributions (T. Goos)

 

Contributions will be tabulated for the past 3 intercessional periods. Planned contributions for the following intercessional period will also be tabulated.

 

Contributions further the objectives of the IABP and are defined in the Operating Principles of the IABP, section 6.5.

 

The Participants Contributions table is given in attachment 3

 

9.0  Joint IPAB and IABP Session

9.1  Status Reports from each Programme

 

9.1.1       IPAB (I. Allison)

 

9.1.2       IABP (I. Rigor)

 

The powerpoint presentation of this report is available on the web (IABP-Status.ppt).

 

9.1.3       CLIC (I. Allison)

 

9.2  Joint IPAB and IABP Technical Session

 

9.2.1       JCAD buoy (T. Kikuchi)

 

Changes of the Arctic Ocean and its impacts on the global climate system are important issues.  In order to understand the on-going changes and their mechanism, sustained observations with large spatial coverage in all seasons should be required.  Buoy observation is effective method to accomplish these purposes, especially in the multiyear ice region where the underlying oceanographic circulation and its influence on the surface heat budget between atmosphere and ocean.  JAMSTEC and WHOI conducted buoy observation in the Arctic Ocean using Ice-Ocean Environmental Buoy (IOEB) consisting of meteorological, ice, ocean sensors.  From the IOEB observations, spatial distributions of the summer shelf water in the Canadian Basin have been clarified.  The acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP) mounted on the IOEB measured the eddies and their characteristics. 

 

Based on the experience of IOEB, JAMSTEC began development of a new drifting buoy for the Arctic multiyear ice zone in 1999, in collaboration with METOCEAN Data Systems Limited.  The new drifting buoy is named J-CAD, JAMSTEC Compact Arctic Drifter.  The J-CAD consists with oceanographic sensors (CT sensor (Sea-Bird SBE-37IM) and ADCP (RDInstruments WHM 300)), meteorological sensors, system controller (monitoring system for buoy condition, CPU, and power supply), data communication system, and platform.  The oceanographic data are sent to CPU via "Inductive Coupling Modem (ICM)" system.  The data processed by the CPU are transmitted through the ORBCOMM satellite communication system to our laboratory.  Also we can send commands from the laboratory to the J-CAD using the ORBCOMM satellite "communication" system.  The small weight and size make us possible to have quick installation.  Real-time and in-situ oceanographic and meteorological data can be obtained from the Arctic multiyear ice zone via satellite.

 

In April 2000, we installed J-CAD 1 near the North Pole (89.683 oN 130.333 oW), as a component of the North Pole Environmental Observatory (NPEO).  The installation of J-CAD 1 was completed on a multiyear ice with a thickness of about 2.6 meters within a day.  Recent buoy position is 87.500oN 2.167oW at 0:00 (GMT) 23rd June 2000.  J-CAD 1 is now moving to the Fram Strait.  The real-time data of J-CAD is provided on our web site (URL, http://w3.jamstec.go.jp:8338).  The installation of the second J-CAD is scheduled in the Eastern Beaufort Sea from the Canadian Coast Guard Ice-breaker, Sir Wilfred Laurier, in September 2000. 

 

In order to monitor the change of the Arctic Ocean, the simultaneous buoy observation should be required in the two major basins of the Arctic Ocean, i.e., the Eurasian Basin and the Canadian Basin.  We have started a long-term monitoring using J-CAD in the Eurasian Basin as a component of NPEO.  In the Canadian Basin, we are planning to maintain J-CAD observation in collaboration with Canadian scientists.  There still remains uncovered region by J-CAD observation such as the Eastern Arctic Ocean, i.e., Laptev and Eastern Siberian Seas.  We need both scientific collaborations and logistic supports to install J-CADs in these regions.

 

9.2.2       ICEX buoy (T. Kvinge)

 

9.2.3       IABP and Arctic Drifting Buoy data CD (E. Couture)

 

MEDS produced a CD that includes IABP interpolated data sets (1979-1999), data sets that have not been interpolated  (1979-1999), ocean buoy data (1985-1994), Arctic Surface Velocity Program Krig data (1991-1999), related products and documentation, and finally, IABP documents such as programme description, meeting reports, data reports and buoy diagrams.  The CD will be ready for distribution in September 2000.

 

9.2.4       IPAB buoy development (M. Doble)

 

9.2.5       Twenty Year Review of IABP data. (I. Rigor)

 

The International Arctic Buoy Programme has maintained a network of drifting buoy in the Arctic Basin since 1979. These buoys measure sea level pressure (SLP), surface air temperature (SAT), and other geophysical quantities. Ice Motion can be estimated from positions taken by the Argos satellite system. Over twenty years of buoy data have been collected. We present the climatology of SLP, SAT, and ice motion, as well as show how the data vary seasonally and interannually. Finally we show how the changes in the data are related to changes noted in the Arctic Oscillation.

 

9.2.6       North Pole Environmental Observatory. (I. Rigor)

 

The NPEO is an international, collaborative effort between PSC, PMEL, JAMSTEC, and OSU funded by NSF. It is a long term project designed to study the changes in Arctic Climate.

 

The projects hopes to measure just about everything from ocean salinity to ice thickness and meteorology. This year the project deployed 5 buoys at the pole and deployed 2 AWI buoys for the IABP.

 

Some results have already started flowing in:

·        The onset of melt began on julian day 165, a week earlier than the climatology from the IABP.

·        The ocean temperatures show that the Atlantic warm water core over the Lomonosov Ridge is still warmer than climatology, the temperature maximum during the 90s has moved a little deeper, and the water below 500 m is warmer than we have ever seen it before.