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Canadian
Archipelago Throughflow Study is a five-year joint US-Canada
operation funded by the National Science Foundation and
the University of Delaware. The project contributes to the U.S.
Global Climate Change Program. Three institutions are collaborating on
this project are the University of Delaware, the Institute of
Ocean Sciences, Canada, and Oregon State University.
The study approach
combines a moored array that conducts intense ocean surveys,
satellite remote sensing, bivalve chemical analyses, and
atmospheric modeling. The project will document the
freshwater flux through the Canadian Archipelago and make
comparisons to the flux between Greenland, Iceland, and Norway.
The program is using eight Paroscientific
Model 245 transducers as part of
their instrumentation. Paroscientific transducers were chosen for
this study because of their reputation for accuracy and
reliability.
The 2003 expedition to Nares Strait between northern Greenland and
Ellesmere Islands contributes to the first-ever, simultaneous
tracking of the major freshwater flux into the North-Atlantic
which constitutes a key process that impacts the thermohaline
ocean circulation and thus the global climate.
The research program is important because the discharge of fresh
water from the Arctic into the North Atlantic is one crucial factor
that controls global climate. For this five-year study, the
University of Delaware will install instruments to observe Nares
Strait between northern Greenland and Ellesmere Island to measure;
(a) currents from the bottom to the surface
(b) temperature and salinity from the bottom to the surface, and
(c) sea level at 8 different locations.
These 24 bottom-mounted moorings are the core component of this
study. An additional two moorings measure the ice motion and ice
thickness.
The expedition will
deploy the instruments in 2003, then recover and redeploy them
through the ice in the spring of 2005. The final recovery will be
accomplished in 2007.
Additional information on the expedition and a daily log can be
found at the
Canadian Archipelago Throughflow Study web site. |
