The international multidisciplinary Ocean - Atmosphere - Sea
Ice - Snowpack (OASIS) program studies chemical and physical exchange processes
between the title reservoirs. It focuses on their impact on tropospheric chemistry
and climate, as well as on the surface/biosphere and their feedbacks in the Arctic. OASIS was created in 2004, was an IPY activity, and is planned to continue as a long term program for the next decade.
Several projects are planned for 2008 as part of the IPY: OASIS-CANADA is focusing on the surface atmospheric chemistry of ozone and mercury over the Arctic Ocean using novel sampling strategies. This includes outfitting Arctic sleds with battery operated equipment to measure air-surface fluxes and participation in the development of "O-buoys"; autonomous buoys to remotely map ozone, carbon dioxide, and bromine. OASIS researchers participate in the ice-drift of the French sailboat "TARA", the CFL program during the overwintering of the Amundsen ice-breaker, the British led COBRA campaign off the coast of Northern Quebec, and the Arctic-SOLAS study, focusing among other topics on DMS emission and cloud formation in the summer. Another icebreaker study with an OASIS component is ASCOS in summer 2008 using the Swedish Oden focusing on Arctic summer clouds. British and US projects on POPs will investigate air - snow transfer of POPs and their photochemistry in the various reservoirs.
From Feb. - June of 2009 OASIS undertook a large interdisciplinary field study at Barrow, AK and at a nearby ice camp in the Beaufort Sea to address key questions such as: How and where are which reactants processed in snow surfaces? How are halogen and HOx chemistry connected? What are the relative roles of snowpack and sea-salt aerosols in activating halogens? What is the impact of halogen chemistry on aerosol production? OASIS 2009 was also seen as a springboard to better connect OASIS science to the Arctic biological sciences and the global modeling community. One of the important questions that connects all three communities is how changing sea ice will change surface ozone concentrations, and thus mercury product fluxes, and how both of these will affect Arctic biota.
Upcoming International Conferences
AGU 2009 Session A08:
Ocean-Atmosphere-Sea Ice-Snow Interactions in Polar Regions: Results from Recent Field Campaigns
Ocean Sciences 2010 session CO10:
Observations and Modelling of Air-Sea Biogeochemical Fluxes in Ice-Covered Waters
IPY OSC 2010 Session T1-3:
Chemical exchanges between ice, atmosphereand ocean in polar regions - impacts on clouds, ecosystems, and climate
AGU 2009 Session A08:
Ocean-Atmosphere-Sea Ice-Snow Interactions in Polar Regions: Results from Recent Field Campaigns
Ocean Sciences 2010 session CO10:
Observations and Modelling of Air-Sea Biogeochemical Fluxes in Ice-Covered Waters
IPY OSC 2010 Session T1-3:
Chemical exchanges between ice, atmosphereand ocean in polar regions - impacts on clouds, ecosystems, and climate
Several projects are planned for 2008 as part of the IPY: OASIS-CANADA is focusing on the surface atmospheric chemistry of ozone and mercury over the Arctic Ocean using novel sampling strategies. This includes outfitting Arctic sleds with battery operated equipment to measure air-surface fluxes and participation in the development of "O-buoys"; autonomous buoys to remotely map ozone, carbon dioxide, and bromine. OASIS researchers participate in the ice-drift of the French sailboat "TARA", the CFL program during the overwintering of the Amundsen ice-breaker, the British led COBRA campaign off the coast of Northern Quebec, and the Arctic-SOLAS study, focusing among other topics on DMS emission and cloud formation in the summer. Another icebreaker study with an OASIS component is ASCOS in summer 2008 using the Swedish Oden focusing on Arctic summer clouds. British and US projects on POPs will investigate air - snow transfer of POPs and their photochemistry in the various reservoirs.
From Feb. - June of 2009 OASIS undertook a large interdisciplinary field study at Barrow, AK and at a nearby ice camp in the Beaufort Sea to address key questions such as: How and where are which reactants processed in snow surfaces? How are halogen and HOx chemistry connected? What are the relative roles of snowpack and sea-salt aerosols in activating halogens? What is the impact of halogen chemistry on aerosol production? OASIS 2009 was also seen as a springboard to better connect OASIS science to the Arctic biological sciences and the global modeling community. One of the important questions that connects all three communities is how changing sea ice will change surface ozone concentrations, and thus mercury product fluxes, and how both of these will affect Arctic biota.