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Title: Polar Ocean Observations: A Critical Gap in the Observing System and Its Effect on Environmental Predictions From Hours to a Season

Journal Article · · Frontiers in Marine Science
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  1. Environment and Climate Change Canada, Dorval (Canada). Meteorological Research Division. Environmental Numerical Prediction Research Section
  2. Naval Research Lab., Bay St. Louis, MS (United States). Stennis Space Center
  3. Université Laval-CNRS, Quebec City (Canada). Takuvik
  4. Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, Bergen (Norway)
  5. Météo France, Toulouse (France). Division of Marine and Oceanography; Université de Toulouse, Toulouse (France). CNRS. Météo France. CNRM
  6. European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, Darmstadt (Germany)
  7. Perspecta, Inc., Bay St. Louis, MS (United States). Stennis Space Center,
  8. Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St. John’s, NL (Canada)
  9. Université de Liège (Belgium). Chemical Oceanography Unit
  10. Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Scripps Inst. of Oceanography
  11. Met Office, Exeter (United Kingdom)
  12. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States). Earth System Research Lab. Physical Sciences Division
  13. Collecte Localisation Satellites, Toulouse (France)
  14. The Inversion Lab, Hamburg (Germany)
  15. Arcadis Nederland B.V., Zwolle (Netherlands)
  16. Ocean Atmosphere Systems, Hamburg (Germany); Alfred Wegener Inst. for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven (Germany)
  17. Université Laval-CNRS, Quebec City (Canada). Takuvik; Laboratoire d’Oceanographie Physique et Spatiale, CNRS – IFREMER – IRD – UBO, Plouzané (France)
  18. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Joint Inst. for the Study of the Atmosphere and Oceans
  19. European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, Darmstadt (Germany)
  20. Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen (Denmark)
  21. Perspecta, Inc., Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, MS (United States)
  22. Bureau of Meteorology Hobart, TAS (Australia)
  23. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Polar Science Center
  24. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States). Earth System Research Lab. Physical Sciences Division; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Cooperative Inst. for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)
  25. Univ. of Gothenburg (Sweden). Dept. of Marine Sciences; Univ. of Cape Town (South Africa). Dept. of Oceanography
  26. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States). Earth System Research Lab.
  27. Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, La Spezia (Italy)
  28. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA (United States)
  29. Sun Yat-Sen Univ., Guangzhou (China). School of Atmospheric Sciences. Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Climate Change and Natural Disaster Studies
+ Show Author Affiliations

There is a growing need for operational oceanographic predictions in both the Arctic and Antarctic polar regions. In the former, this is driven by a declining ice cover accompanied by an increase in maritime traffic and exploitation of marine resources. Oceanographic predictions in the Antarctic are also important, both to support Antarctic operations and also to help elucidate processes governing sea ice and ice shelf stability. However, a significant gap exists in the ocean observing system in polar regions, compared to most areas of the global ocean, hindering the reliability of ocean and sea ice forecasts. This gap can also be seen from the spread in ocean and sea ice reanalyses for polar regions which provide an estimate of their uncertainty. The reduced reliability of polar predictions may affect the quality of various applications including search and rescue, coupling with numerical weather and seasonal predictions, historical reconstructions (reanalysis), aquaculture and environmental management including environmental emergency response. Here, we outline the status of existing near-real time ocean observational efforts in polar regions, discuss gaps, and explore perspectives for the future. Specific recommendations include a renewed call for open access to data, especially real-time data, as a critical capability for improved sea ice and weather forecasting and other environmental prediction needs. Dedicated efforts are also needed to make use of additional observations made as part of the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP; 2017– 2019) to inform optimal observing system design. To provide a polar extension to the Argo network, it is recommended that a network of ice-borne sea ice and upper-ocean observing buoys be deployed and supported operationally in ice-covered areas together with autonomous profiling floats and gliders (potentially with ice detection capability) in seasonally ice covered seas. Finally, additional efforts to better measure and parameterize surface exchanges in polar regions are much needed to improve coupled environmental prediction.

Research Organization:
Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Contributing Organization:
the WWRP PPP Steering Group
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-04ER63917
OSTI ID:
1628047
Journal Information:
Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol. 6; ISSN 2296-7745
Publisher:
Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (2)

Observing System Evaluation Based on Ocean Data Assimilation and Prediction Systems: On-Going Challenges and a Future Vision for Designing and Supporting Ocean Observational Networks journal July 2019
Synergies in Operational Oceanography: The Intrinsic Need for Sustained Ocean Observations journal September 2019

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