MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) is a FRS-FNRS funded research credit (PDR, 2020-2021) that support the participation of the Université de Liège (Bruno Delille) to the MOSAiC and ECVice activities.
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olar Regions, which are recognized as the most affected by climate changes, still represent one of the largest uncertainties in the understanding of the greenhouse gases cycles (GHGs). How the sea ice cover contributes to these cycles remains one of the greatest unknown. The project aims to budget air-ice fluxes of the three most potent GHGs – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide – over Arctic first-year and multiyear pack ice, spanning the entire lifetime of sea ice. The project will investigate and quantify the role of Arctic sea ice changes on the GHGs atmospheric burden.
We aim to participate to a one year drift experiment in the central Arctic Ocean in the frame of the MOSAiC project. MOSAiC holds for Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate. The backbone of MOSAiC is the transpolar drift of the RV Polarstern in heavy pack ice for a one year period. We will measure N2O, CH4 and CO2 speciation in sea ice, and related air-sea ice fluxes of GHGs (chamber method) for the whole duration of the cruise.
We will also unlock the possibility to carry out long term unattended monitoring of gases fluxes over sea ice by addressing the discrepancies between eddy covariance and chamber methods. Both technics will be implemented during MOSAiC survey, and we will participate in a dedicated intercomparison over land fast ice in the frame of ECVice working group.
Finally, thanks to the MOSAiC integrated approach, we will enlarge sea ice biogeochemistry context and we will assess the significance of the sea ice component along the atmosphere-snow-sea ice-ocean continuum. As MOSAiC drift is expected to pass through Arctic regions subject to rapid changes (air temperature increase and sea ice changes), we will document the impact of these forcing on sea ice biogeochemistry and related fluxes of GHGs.
In addition we will participate to the activities of the ECVice SCOR working group. ECVice will synthesize past intercalibration exercises of basic biogeochemical properties and design and coordinate new experiments. Our ultimate goal is to provide the international community with standardized protocols for processing sea-ice samples and collecting data for key variables, including CO2 partial pressure, nutrients, algal biomass and production, and gas exchange. We will also establish the effectiveness of new techniques to address sea-ice heterogeneity (often referred to as “patchiness”). These tasks will directly benefit the long-term community goal of understanding the response of polar marine environments to ongoing climate change.
The largest scientific expedition ever to the Arctic was officially launched this 19 September from the port of Tromsø in Norway. Called MOSAiC, for Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate, this mission - which involves many scientific bodies, including researchers from our lab - will collect data on the evolution of the climate process in this region, which is heavily impacted by global climate change.
