ASPECt (sea ice processes & climate)

The Expert Group on Antarctic Sea-ice Processes and Climate (ASPeCt) aims to improve our understanding of the Antarctic sea ice zone through focussed and ongoing field programmes, remote sensing and numerical modelling.

ASPeCt is an expert group on multi-disciplinary Antarctic sea ice zone research within the SCAR Physical Sciences programme. Established in 1996, ASPeCt has the key objective of improving our understanding of the Antarctic sea ice zone through focussed and ongoing field programmes, remote sensing and numerical modelling. The programme is designed to complement, and contribute to, other international science programmes in Antarctica as well as existing and proposed research programmes within national Antarctic programmes. ASPeCt also includes a component of data rescue of valuable historical sea ice zone information.

About

For more information, visit the ASPeCt website.

The overall aim of ASPeCt is to understand and model the role of Antarctic sea ice in the coupled atmosphere-ice-ocean system.  This requires an understanding of key processes, and the determination of physical, chemical, and biological properties of the sea ice zone.  These are addressed by objectives which are:

  1. To establish the distribution of the basic physical properties of sea ice that are important to air-sea interaction and to biological processes within the Antarctic sea-ice zone (ice and snow cover thickness distributions; structural, chemical and thermal properties of the snow and ice; upper ocean hydrography; floe size and lead distribution).  These data are required to derive forcing and validation fields for climate models and to determine factors controlling the biology and ecology of the sea ice-associated biota.
  2. To understand the key sea-ice zone processes necessary for improved parameterisation of these processes in coupled models.

The key scientific questions which must be answered to meet the objectives of the ASPeCt Programme are:

  • What are the broad-scale time-varying distributions of the ice and snow-cover thickness, ice composition and other physical characteristics in the Antarctic sea ice zone?
  • What are the dominant processes of ice formation, modification, decay and transport which influence and determine ice-thickness, composition and distribution?
  • What is the role of coastal polynyas in determining total ice production, heat, salt and biogeochemical fluxes, and water mass modification?
  • What are the processes that control the ice-water interactions at the ice-edge, and their seasonal changes?

For more details, visit the ASPeCt website.

ASPeCt’s Main Themes or Study Areas:

  • Snow and Sea Ice Climatology (Ship Obs)
  • Snow and Ice Properties (Cores, Thickness, Sampling)
  • Time Series of Sea Ice Processes (Drifting Stations and Ice Mass Balance Buoys) Coastal Polynya Process Experiments
  • Ice Edge Process Experiments
  • Validation of Remote Sensing for application in Sea Ice Modeling Coordination of sea ice observations from coastal stations (AFIN-Antarctic Fast Ice Network)

Key Questions that ASPeCt addresses:

  • How is Antarctic sea ice responding to global change? Why is Antarctic sea ice extent increasing?
  • How important is the sea ice for the ecosystem?
  • What is the role of the sea ice pump for CO2 exchange between ocean and atmosphere? How is sea ice thickness changing?
  • What is the role of snow processes?
  • How can we distinguish climate trends from inter-annual variability? What variables control the predictability of sea ice?

Activities:

  • ASPeCt Metadata in the Global Change Master Directory.
  • Development of ice cameras to be used automatically on ships of opportunity.
  • Organize sessions at SCAR Open Science Conferences and other meetings.
  • Coordination with SOOS, IICWG (International Ice Chart Working Group).
  • Planning to develop data archives for AUV under ice data, aerial photography, airborne lidar, (from manned and unmanned aircraft).

ASPeCt organizational structure

ASPeCt has a leadership structure consisting of a Vice-Chair, Chair, Immediate past Chair, Early Career Scientist (ECS). The Vice- Chair serves for at least two years. The Chair serves for at least four years. The Immediate Past Chair Serves for at least two years. Each post is renewable/extendable in two-year increments. The Vice-Chair does not automatically become Chair and there is the opportunity for the leadership to be renewed every two years.

Two other positions within the leadership structure consist of an appointed ASPeCt Representative on SOOS (if appointed by SOOS then on their SSC, or ex-officio if not on the SSC) and an appointed Communication and Data Executive (typically at the AAD where the ASPeCt database, website, etc are currently housed).

Terms of Reference
ASPeCt Science and Implementation Plan

News and Updates from the Sea-Ice Processes Community.

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Members

Contact

The chair of the ASPeCt group is Marilyn Raphael.

Membership

  • Marilyn Raphael, Chair (USA)
  • Steve Ackley, Immediate Past Chair (USA)
  • Petra Heil, Data and Communications Officer (Australia)
  • Stefanie Arndt, Junior Officer (Germany)
  • Kay Ohshima (Japan)
  • Martin Vancoppenolle (France)
  • Rob Massom (Australia)
  • Ted Maksym (USA)
  • Thorsten Markus (USA)
  • Pat Langhorne (New Zealand)
  • Hyoung Chul Shin (Korea)
  • Elizabeth Hunke (USA)
  • Marcel Nicolaus (Germany)
  • Klaus Meiners (Australia)
  • Sharon Stammerjohn (USA)
  • Ron Kwok (USA)
  • Timo Vihma (Finland)
  • Jean Louis Tison (Belgium)

A list of members of the ASPeCt Scientific Steering Group is available on the ASPeCt website.

Resources

Publications, Data and Links of interest to the Antarctic sea ice community

Publications
Data
Links