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ARCHIVED-CARN Vol 15, Nov 2002 [PDF-745.0 Vol 15, November 2002 NEWSLETTER FOR THE Canadian Antarctic Research Network The Argo Armada capable of adjusting its own buoyancy. After a few hours at the sea surface the float adjusts its configuration to become Howard Freeland heavier than the surrounding waters and dives to a depth of 2,000 metres. At that “parking depth” it drifts for ten days, Readers of this newsletter hardly need reminding that the then re-adjusts to float upwards to the sea surface again. On oceans surrounding the Antarctic continent are hard to get the way up it measures the distribution of temperature and to and so are inadequately explored. This situation is about salinity, reports the data to a satellite and then returns to its to change as project Argo matures into an operational con- cern. The object of Argo is to deploy an array of over 3,000 robotic devices to map the climatic state of the ocean, glob- Figure 1 A schematic showing the density of Argo floats likely to be achieved within the ally. Each Argo float is launched at the sea surface and is next two years. This diagram was computed by placing 3,000 floats in a rectan- gular grid in a simple ocean model. The floats were allowed to drift for a couple of years and the distribution frozen for this diagram. 60°N 40°N 20°N 0° LATITUDE 20°S 40°S 60°S 50°E 110°E 150°E 110°W 10°W LONGITUDE 2 In This Issue The Argo Armada 1 The last weekend in February, 2003 marks the 10th anni- versary of the first organized effort to coordinate Ant- $2.6 Million in Funding arctic research in Canada. In this issue Peter Suedfeld, to Develop Cybercartographic Atlases 4 who has been involved since the beginning, outlines the events and the subsequent activities of CARP-EX and its Simulation Models of Antarctic Marine Ecosystems successor, CCAR. Canadians were of course active in Ant- in Support of Ecosystem-Based Management 5 arctic science prior to that and are more so now, aided Canadian to Chair CliC Scientific Steering Group 6 in part by the establishment of the Arctic/Antarctic Exchange Program in 1996. Canadians have typically SCAR XXVIII 7 become involved through invitations from foreign scien- tists to join their programs. SCAR 2002 Reports This pattern, however, is changing. In September Physical Sciences/Glaciology 8 2002 the CPC and CCAR published “Antarctic Science Life Sciences Standing Scientific Group 8 and Bipolar Linkages: A Science Strategy for Canada” Geosciences Standing Scientific Group 9 and sent the document to six federal ministers for con- sideration. In this issue Howard Freeman describes the Carleton University Honours Dr. Fred Roots 9 deployment by DFO of six Argo floats in an experiment across the Antarctic Convergence; you will also find a Report on Subglacial Lakes – Canadian Deep Ice Project 10 note about significant funding from SSHRC to Dr. Fraser Taylor for creating a Cyberatlas of Antarctica; and Prof. Ten Years of Canadian Antarctic Organization 1993–2003 Tony Pitcher writes about Modelling of Antarctic Ecosys- – A Historical Summary 12 tems, the subject of an international workshop he is orga- Some Recent Canadian Contributions nizing at the UBC’s Fisheries Centre in April 2003. These to Antarctic and Bipolar Science 14 examples demonstrate an increasingly proactive Canadian approach to Antarctic science. News in Brief 15 Olav H. Loken New CCAR Members 16 CANADIAN ANTARCTIC RESEARCH NETWORK 3 parking depth. Each float should have energy sufficient for 40°S about 200 such excursions and thus has an anticipated life- time of about five years. Argo deployments started in 2001 and full implemen- Antarctic convergence tation to a global ocean-climate monitoring array will take several more years. It has been estimated that after Argo is 50°S fully implemented in the southern ocean the project will gather more ocean data in just one year of operation than has been gathered by all previous cruises exploring the waters of the southern ocean. Clearly in a very short time 60°S Argo will dominate our knowledge of the oceans surround- ing the Antarctic continent. Figure 1 shows a map of the world with 3,000 floats evenly distributed. The floats will move and we will never establish this particular array, but this illustrates the density of observations we are aiming to 70°S supply. 100°W 80°W 60°W Canada is contributing to the global Argo array, and Figure 2 as part of this global contribution we deployed six floats in The actual launch locations of six Canadian Argo floats. The position of the cluster the southern ocean on December 14 and 15, 2002. As Can- relative to the Antarctic Convergence is indicated. These floats were launched on December 14 and 15, 2002, and are expected to report temperature and salinity pro- ada does not have research vessels operating in the South- files every ten days for about five years. ern Hemisphere these floats were launched from a C-130 (Hercules) aircraft staged out of Punta Arenas, which deployed the floats in the pattern illustrated in figure 2. As I write this article 15 nations are deploying floats Once launched the floats transmitted data on instrument in support of project Argo and more are expected to join the function for six hours before diving to 2,000 metres. Air Argo club in the near future. The project is unusual in launch is still a relatively new idea – and these were the many aspects, perhaps chief among them the agreement first Canadian floats launched from an aircraft – and so I among all participating nations that no data will be pro- was at work in the early hours of December 24 and 25. It is tected; all will be made available in near real-time on the with great relief that I can report that the first profiles various Argo data servers. By the end of the day on Decem- arrived and all six floats reported perfect data. They have ber 24 the first four profiles from the Canadian southern subsequently reported more profiles and appear to be in array were available for download from data servers in excellent electronic health. Canada, Japan, France and the USA. The pattern shown in figure 2 has been selected because of an interest in the mechanisms controlling the formation of Antarctic Intermediate Water. The array should allow horizontal currents to be mapped at all levels 4 between 2,000 metres and the surface. As winter surface these six floats the Department of Fisheries and Oceans now cooling occurs and water sinks to 800–1,000 metres vortex has an active Antarctic Research Program. columns should be stretched and relative vorticity intro- duced in the upper levels of the water column. If we can The DFO Argo FactSheet can be acquired at: pac.dfo-mpo. observe this rotation we can estimate the area average of gc.ca/sci/osap/projects/argo/factsheet.pdf. A map of the the vertical sinking velocity. Within one year these floats world with the current locations of Argo floats, projected will disperse, and most will probably pass through the onto an icosahedral grid that you can download, cut out Drake Passage and become part of the larger international and assemble into an icosahedral pseudo-globe can be climate-monitoring array. However, with the deployment of acquired at: pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sci/osap/projects/argo/argo_ icos.pdf. Further information about Argo can be obtained at: argo.ucsd.edu or argo.jcommops.org. Howard Freeland is a Research Scientist at DFO’s Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, BC and is a member of the International Argo Science Team. E-mail: [email protected]. $2.6 Million in Funding to Develop Cybercartographic Atlases Mr. Allan Rock, Minister of Industry, announced on Novem- Antarctica with special emphasis on environmental change. ber 27, 2002 that the Social Sciences and Humanities Re- The team will work with several partners from the Canadian search Council of Canada (SSHRC) had awarded a grant of government, academia and the private sector including $2.6 million over five years “to make Canada a world leader CCAR. Research and government agencies in several coun- in cybercartography, a field of study that uses multimedia tries, e.g., Argentina, Australia, China, New Zealand, UK and computer technology to create interactive maps”. SSHRC the USA will contribute to the Cyberatlas of Antarctica. gave the grant to a team led by Prof. Fraser Taylor, of Car- leton University, Ottawa, Ontario, as part of its “Initiative in For more information about the cyberatlas project, please the New Economy” program. contact Prof. Fraser Taylor, Carleton University, Ottawa. Tel: The team will produce two separate cyberatlases: one 613-520-3739, E-mail: [email protected]. A description will map the development of Canada’s international trade of the project appears at carleton.ca/geography. patterns, and the other will be a Cybercartographic Atlas of CANADIAN ANTARCTIC RESEARCH NETWORK 5 Simulation Models of Antarctic Marine Ecosystems in Support of Ecosystem-Based Management Tony Pitcher The ocean dynamics of the Antarctic region are thought to obligations to contribute to CCAMLR science and has no co- have a large influence on global fluxes. Living marine organ- ordinated national policy or research on Antarctic issues. isms in the Antarctic have evolved together in an intricate At the same time, Canada is the home for a new gen- web of feeding relationships structured on a template of eration of quantitative whole-ecosystem models that track these complex ocean habitats fashioned from ice, currents trophic flows in the food web from plankton and aquatic and upwellings.
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