National Science and Technology Week - Polar Connections
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S H E B A
Surface
Heat
Budget
of the
Arctic
Ocean

Why Would Scientists Freeze a Ship in the Ice?

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.

Click here to view photos of SHEBA.

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.

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The SHEBA Home Page
The Sea Ice Home Page
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