This research project will be conducted as an ancillary program in conjunction with a large, coordinated, multi-investigator program, Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA) Ocean. The research program will be conducted for 14 months from a ship frozen into the ice pack. This investigator will determine the stresses in the sea ice that result from the dynamics of the permanent ice pack through a full annual cycle. This research will be important for the determination of the effects of dynamic stresses created by the thermal stresses due to the flux of incoming heat radiating onto the ice floe as a function of changing atmospheric and oceanic conditions. These measurements are important to understanding how the ice flow responds as heat is reflected or absorbed by the ice that melts in the summer and thickens in the winter in response to seasonal variations in climate. The sea-ice dynamic stress measurement program makes an important contribution to the SHEBA team of researchers who will measure atmospheric variables with a large array of instruments on the ice floe and from aircraft flying above as well as ice and ocean property measurements made on and below the ice floe. The combined set of measurements in SHEBA will allow refinement of climate models for the Arctic region. Those improved models will lead to better predictions of the climate and the permanence of the Arctic ice cap under a proposed global warming that could occur if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are increased above present levels.
