Concept information
Preferred term
ROPEX
Definition
- [from ROPEX Background page, "http://www.esr.org/ropex/ronice.html#bac"] The Ronne Polynya Experiment (ROPEX) was carried out in the southern Weddell Sea in January and February 1998, using the Royal Navy ice-strengthened hydrographic vessel HMS Endurance. The experiment focused on the southern shelf of the Weddell Sea. The ship departed from the Falkland Islands on January 14 and returned on February 20, operating in the southern Weddell Sea for the period January 21 to February 12. Over one hundred conductivity-temperature-depth ("CTD") stations were collected in the region of the Filchner overflow, and near and north of the Ronne ice front. Bathymetry data were obtained over the southwestern continental shelf, a region for which no prior data existed. Five European current meter moorings were recovered, three from the Ronne ice front and two from the Filchner Depression. Four new European/US moorings were deployed in a region where dense water modified by the inclusion of potentially supercooled Ice Shelf Water first flows down the continental slope after leaving the Filchner Depression. The primary goal of the program was to obtain oceanographic, sea-ice, and atmospheric measurements to improve our understanding of the physical processes coupling the southern Weddell Sea to the circulation and properties of the global ocean and atmosphere. In the southern Weddell Sea, four elements strongly interact with each other: the ocean over the continental shelf; the polar atmosphere; sea-ice (when it is present); and the massive floating glacial ice shelves, which are the oceanic termination of continental ice as it flows off the Antarctic continent. Therefore, the primary research tasks for the cruise were: - Atmospheric measurements over sea ice and boundary layer development near ice shelves; - Sea ice observations and sampling; - Conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) ocean profiling; - Oceanographic mooring deployment and recovery; and Bathymetry. Sea ice conditions during the cruise were very favourable, allowing the ship to survey a large area north of the Ronne Ice Front. No previous oceanographic or even bathymetric data have been obtained from this region. Our data will be integrated with other programs in the region, including measurements obtained under the Ronne Ice Shelf (Nicholls, 1996). This study will improve our ability to model the Weddell Sea's role in such processes as the global fresh water budget and the generation of Antarctic Bottom Water, the latter being a fundamental component of the Global Ocean Conveyor Belt (Broecker, 1991). The primary institution responsible for the ROPEX cruise is the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Other participating institutions are: - Southampton Oceanography Center (Southampton, UK); - Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (Liverpool, UK); - Alfred-Wegener Institute (Bremerhaven, Germany); - Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (Hanover, New Hampshire); - Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos, New Mexico); and - Earth & Space Research (Seattle, Washington). The US component of this research was supported by the National Science Foundation grant OPP-9615525. (en)
Broader concept
- P - R (en)
URI
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/5e6e435f-14b4-4f22-a1b7-1b4bd647459d
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