AMOC: Acoustic monitoring of the ocean climate of the Arctic

Abstract

The overall objective of AMOC is to develop and design an acoustic system for long-term monitoring of the ocean temperature and ice thickness in the Arctic Ocean, including the Fram Strait, for climate variability studies and global warming detection. The unique combination of the underwater acoustic remote sensing with satellite remote sensing of the ice cover including modeling and data assimilation, in the predicted sensitive climate region of the Arctic Ocean, is perhaps the key solution to monitor global climate changes and early detection of global warming. AMOC has the following specific objectives: (i) Compilation and analysis of existing ocean and ice data from the Arctic Ocean. (ii) Simulation of present and future Arctic Ocean environment to be used as input to acoustic modeling. (iii) Simulation of present and future basin-wide acoustic propagation using natural variability and global warming scenarios to investigate the sensitivity of acoustic methods for global warming detection. (iv) Simulation of present and future acoustic propagation in the Fram Strait to investigate the sensitivity of acoustic methods for monitoring heat and volume fluxes in an area of strong mesoscale eddy activity. (v) Design of an optimal acoustic monitoring system for climate change detection in the Arctic.