Barents Sea: projects/activities

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Directory entires that have specified Barents Sea as one of the geographic regions for the project/activity and are included in the AMAP, ENVINET, SAON and SEARCH directories. Note that the list of regions is not hierarchical, and there is no relation between regions (e.g. a record tagged with Nunavut may not be tagged with Canada). To see the full list of regions, see the regions list. To browse the catalog based on the originating country (leady party), see the list of countries.

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Displaying: 1 - 5 of 5
1. Monitoring of broadband longwave and shortwave radiance at METNO Arctic stations

    These observations was originally funded through IPY projects (iAOOS-Norway and IPYTHORPEX), they are now maintained by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. The observations at Bjørnøya started April 2008, Jan Mayen October 2008 and Hopen is scheduled 2009.

    Objectives are:

    1. Provision of algorithm tuning and validation data for EUMETSAT OSISAF radiative fluxes products (http://osisaf.met.no/).
    2. Provision of validation data for numerical weather prediction models.
    3. Generation of time series for use in time series analysis of atmospheric radiative conditions.
    4. Validation data for studying ocean and atmosphere heat exchange processes using bulk parameterisations.
    Atmosphere
    2. Ellasjøen, Bear Island - A mass balance study of a highly contaminated Arctic area

    In 1994, analyses of sediments and fish from Lake Ellasjøen on Bear Island revealed a surprising scenario. The analytical results indicated some of the highest values of the contaminants PCB and DDT in freshwater sediments and fish ever found in the Arctic. The 1994 results were based on limited amounts of samples. During 1996 and 1997 there were carried out new sampling and analyses of several samples. These results verify the results found in 1994. Since the POP-patterns found deviate considerably from the typical patterns expected for local contamination, no local source can be assumed to be responsible for the high POP values found. Thus, the questions that need to be addressed include the source of these contaminants, the transport pathways that deliver these contaminants to this site, total deposition and finally contaminant fate including biological uptake and effects. Previous investigations from the early 80’s on high volume air samples carried out at Bear Island revealed several long-range transport episodes from Eastern Europe. The overall objective of this project is to contribute significant new information to the understanding of contaminant pathways in the Arctic hydrosphere and to provide a better understanding of contaminant focusing in a sensitive polar environment. This will be accomplished through the development of a comprehensive mass balance study of the atmospheric loadings of PCBs and other contaminants to the Lake Ellasjøen watershed to determine the seasonal importance of atmospheric deposition on a remote polar island. Further, effort will be directed at assessing the relative importance of various source regions of contaminants to the island through an evaluation of contaminant signatures and back trajectories of pollution events.

    Pathways Organochlorines PCBs Long-range transport Pollution sources Contaminant transport Modelling Arctic Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) Pesticides Atmosphere
    3. Polar Exchange at the Sea Surface (POLES)

    Our broad area of enquiry is the role of polar regions in the global energy and water cycles, and the atmospheric, oceanic and sea ice processes that determine that role. The primary importance of our investigation is to show how these polar processes relate to global climate.

    Atmospheric processes polar cloud dynamics ice dynamics surface radiation and cloud forcing Climate variability Climate Sea ice Climate change surface heat and mass balance polar atmospheric processes ice-ocean models arctic climate Modelling Ice Oceanography Arctic SEARCH Atmosphere Ocean currents cryosphere ice thickness
    4. The Role of Polar Oceans in Contemporary Climate Change

    Our central geophysical objective is to determine how sea ice and the polar oceans respond to and influence the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere. Our primary technical objective is to determine how best to incorporate satellite measurements in an ice/ocean model.

    Atmospheric processes ice dynamics mass balance of Arctic sea ice Geophysics Climate variability Climate Sea ice Climate change freshwater balance of the Arctic Ocean polar atmospheric processes ice-ocean models arctic climate Modelling Ice Oceanography Arctic SEARCH Atmosphere Ocean currents ice thickness
    5. Polar Ice Prediction System Version 3.0 (PIPS 3)

    To develop the next-generation Navy operational ice thickness and movement model.

    Shelf seas Hydrography Modelling Ice Oceanography Arctic SEARCH Data management Atmosphere Ocean currents