The data set should reveal any changes in the net heat influx into the Arctic Ocean over this 18 month period. Should there be a return to cooler conditions in the Arctic Ocean as climate modeling has indicated (see above) then this should be evident in the time series as reduction in the temperature along this propagation path. These data are planned to be compared with and ultimately assimilated into new models under development at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, which are attempting to nowcast andforecast the regime shifts and current state of the Arctic Ocean.
In the summer of 2000 a cabled acoustic array is planned for installation in the Beaufort Sea. This array will be cabled to Barrow, Alaska, to a facility that is part of the former Naval Arctic Research Laboratory (NARL). The array will be moored from the bottom in approximately 1800m of water approximately 150km offshore. It will have 45 hydrophones. The array will include thermisters, salinometers, and current meters as well as a tide gauge and a specially designed near-shore horizontal array for marine mammal listening and tracking. Bowhead whale monitoring, tracking and research is an integral part of the planned program for this array system. The array will also be tracked acoustically to determine hydrophone locations. With a cabled system, real-time data collection and analysis will be possible. Finally, a second acoustic source is also planned for installation in 2000/2001 most likely in the central Arctic.
These installations are part of a larger plan to create an extended monitoring grid in the Arctic Ocean for synoptic, real-time, year-round observations.
Fig. 3 The ACOUS Lincoln Sea Array which was deployed on Oct. 1, 1998.
A FUTURE MONITORlNG GRlD for the ARCTIC OCEAN
A future monitoring grid that provides an integrated Arctic Ocean observing system exploiting the capabilities of acoustic remote sensing and direct measurements of important physical ocean properties using cabled moorings and autonomous acoustic source moorings is illustrated in Fig. 4. This notional system network consists of 6 receive array/ocean observatory cabled moorings and 3 autonomous acoustic source moorings.
