Project Title

Thwaites-Amundsen Regional Survey and Network (TARSAN) integrating atmosphere-ice-ocean processes affecting the sub-ice-shelf environment

Summary

Event Number:
C-445-M
NSF/OPP Award 1738992 / NERC Award NE/S006419/1

Program Manager:
Dr. Paul Cutler

ASC POC/Implementer:
Judy Shiple / Dean Einerson / Leslie Blank

Principal Investigator(s)

Dr. Erin Pettit
pettiter@oregonstate.edu
Oregon State University
College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Corvallis, Oregon

Dr. Karen Heywood
k.heywood@uea.ac.uk
University of East Anglia
School of Environmental Sciences
Norwich, United Kingdom

Location

Supporting Stations: McMurdo Station
Research Locations: Thwaites Glacier

Description

Thwaites and neighboring glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment are rapidly losing mass in response to recent climate warming and related changes in ocean circulation. Better understanding of the dominant processes at and near grounding zones is needed, especially in regard to their spatial and temporal variability and their atmospheric and oceanic drivers. Using state-of-the-art technology, such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and automated land-ice stations, the TARSAN project will measure ocean circulation and thinning beneath the floating part of the glacier to investigate how the ocean and atmosphere are affecting it.

Field Season Overview

This season the team will service two atmosphere-ice-ocean multi-sensor remote autonomous station (AMIGOS) and two autonomous phase-sensitive radio-echo sounder radar (ApRES) installed at two locations on Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf during the 2019-20 field season to ensure that they will be able to continue collecting data until recovered in early 2023 or 2024. The NSF priority for science support tasking in West Antarctica in 2020-21 is to manage or recover scientific instruments to maintain their viability for future seasons. This scope of work will be accomplished by ASC contractor staff and one technician provided by UNAVCO and PASSCAL agencies utilizing existing fuel inventories established in West Antarctica during the 2019-20 field season.