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NSF PA/M 97-30 - August 15, 1997

Opportunities for Reporters to Visit Sheba Ice Station in Arctic Ocean

In the largest and most complex science experiment ever supported in the Arctic by the National Science Foundation (NSF), an icebreaker will be allowed to freeze into the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean and left to drift for a year, serving as a floating science station. The target of the experiment, called the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) project, is the great canopy of pack ice about the size of the United States that seals off the Arctic Ocean.

More than half of the Arctic's pack ice melts and refreezes each year, and some models of global climate predict that the ice could vanish if carbon dioxide continues to increase in the atmosphere and warm the globe. The field experiment seeks to help researchers refine computer models of climate, improving predictions of global change.

The SHEBA project, supported by NSF and the Office of Naval Research, will employ--in addition to the frozen-in ship--a fleet of icebreakers, research aircraft and balloons, a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine and satellites. More than 50 scientists from universities and agencies such as NASA and the Department of Energy will participate, along with researchers from Japan, Canada and the Netherlands who will carry out related studies. The SHEBA project is coordinated by the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory.

Reporters may visit the SHEBA project during three periods:

• September 15-October 15, 1997: Icebreakers will cruise from Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada to the SHEBA "freeze-in" site in the Arctic Ocean some 250 miles north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Experiments will be conducted en route and the SHEBA ice station will be set up. Reporters may accompany cruise.
  
  
• October 15-November 1, 1997: Station set-up completed; scientific studies begin. Fly from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to SHEBA ice station, for stays ranging from one day up to two weeks.
  
  
• Mid-March to late April, 1998: Science in full swing at SHEBA ice station, with early results in. Fly from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to SHEBA ice station for stays ranging from three days to several weeks.

Please note: Reporters pay their own travel and lodging to and from Canada and Alaska, until embarking on SHEBA aircraft or ships.

For more information contact: Lynn Simarski, NSF Public Affairs, 703-306-1070/lsimarsk@nsf.gov; or
Sandra Hines, University of Washington News and Information, 206-543-2580/shines@u.washington.edu.

Also see the SHEBA project web page at: http://sheba.apl.washington.edu/default.html.

 
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