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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