Dr Sarah Norris

Dr Sarah Norris
Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science
School of Earth and Environment
University of Leeds
Leeds, LS2 9JT
UK

Phone: +44 113 343 36473
Email: S.J.Norris@leeds.ac.uk

Home | Publications | Projects | CLASP

ASCOS

Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study.

The ASCOS programme made an extensive range of measurements of the physical and chemical processes that couple the ocean, ice, and atmosphere in the central Arctic, with the aim of improving the fidelity of climate models in the Summer of 2008.

Leeds had a NERC funded project - Turbulent Exchange in the Arctic Boundary Layer - which formed the core of the ASCOS boundary layer measurement programme. 3 people from Leeds (Me included) participated in the Field project spending 2 months on the Swedish Icebreaker Oden. We travelled to 87N and set up an ice camp on a large ice floe roughly 3km by 6km. We made measurements of the surface energy budget and the turbulent mixing that couples the ocean and ice surface to the low-level stratus cloud that predominates during the summer months.

Along side the turbulent measurements my part in the project was to make sure all the CLASP units deployed through out the project worked properly and to make aerosol composition measurements using a PCASP volatility system and an SMPS system. 2 CLASP units on the met towers along side the sonic anemometers at heights of 2m and 15m. We also included CLASP on the tether balloon that made near continues profile measurements up to 1 km of aerosol spectra, temperature, pressure, and humidity. A forth CLASP unit was incorporated in the helicopter system making meteorological and aerosol profiles with the CLASP and CPC up to and just within cloud base.

More information and photos (including polar bears) can be found here.

ASCOS is an official International Polar Year (IPY) project (under the umbrella of AICI-IPY), and an international SOLAS project.

The Arctic Climate Impacts Assessment (ACIA) report tells more about Arctic climate change: how it already impacts the animals, plants and people who live in the Arctic, and what the future might bring.