| NSF Org: |
OPP Office of Polar Programs (OPP) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 14, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 14, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 1424387 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Peter Milne
OPP Office of Polar Programs (OPP) GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | August 15, 2014 |
| End Date: | July 31, 2017 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $18,449.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $18,449.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
3090 CENTER GREEN DR BOULDER CO US 80301-2252 (303)497-1000 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
3450 Mitchell Lane Boulder CO US 80301-2260 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | ANT Ocean & Atmos Sciences |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): | |
| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.078 |
ABSTRACT
The Southern Ocean currently absorbs a significant amount of the atmospheric burden of human produced CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, but the future trajectory of this sink is highly uncertain. Sparse observations and complex interacting physical and biological processes limit our understanding of biogeochemistry and climate feedbacks at high southern latitudes. The O2/N2 Ratio and CO2 Airborne Southern Ocean (ORCAS) Study will advance our understanding of the physical and biological controls on tropospheric air-sea exchange of O2 and CO2 over the Southern Ocean. This will be achieved through intensive airborne surveys of atmospheric O2, CO2, related gases, along with ocean surface properties over selected biogeochemical sites over the South Pacific and the Antarctic Peninsula.
ORCAS will utilize the NSF/NCAR Gulfstream V (GV) aircraft with a suite of high precision in situ and remote sensing instruments, and whole-air samplers on 14 flights over an interval of 6 weeks in austral mid-summer. The primary objectives are to observe the large scale tropospheric distributions of O2 and CO2, to characterize regional scale relationships between vertical O2 and CO2 gradients, and to estimate local scale O2 fluxes via Lagrangian boundary layer budgeting with coincident bio-optical remote sensing of the ocean surface.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This grant supported the travel of team members to Boulder, Colorado for an initial project planning meeting and then also later for scientific meetings as part of the O2/N2 Ratio and CO2 Airborne Southern Ocean study (ORCAS). ORCAS was an ambitious campaign to study biogeochemical cycling in the Southern Ocean by measuring atmospheric gases and related parameters from an aircraft. A separate, larger grant supported the field campaign itself.
This grant provided participant support costs for 15 separate team member trips to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, each of approximately 4 days, to conduct field project planning, mission design, and collaborative data analysis. The trips supported under this grant were primarily by university postdocs and included postdocs and students from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Michigan, University of Connecticut, and San Jose State University.
The ORCAS field campaign was successfully completed in Jan/Feb of 2016, flying 98 hours on the NSF/NCAR Gulfstream V aircraft out of Punta Arenas, Chile. A post-campaign Science Team meeting was held in September of 2016, and an AGU session was hosted in December of 2016. An overview paper has been published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and additional scientific papers are in preparation.
This grant supported the development of novel concepts for airborne ocean biogeochemistry research, which were then successfully implemented, and also supported planning for analysis of the resulting data.
Last Modified: 10/03/2017
Modified by: Britton Stephens
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