Introduction to the Special Issue on the New Arctic Ocean

Abstract

One hundred and thirty years ago, Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian polar explorer and scientist, set off on a bold three-year journey to investigate the unknown Arctic Ocean. The expedition relied on a critical technological development: a small, strong, and maneuverable vessel, powered by sail and an engine, with an endurance of five years for twelve men. His intellectual curiosity and careful observations led to an early glimpse of the Arctic Ocean’s circulation and its unique ecosystem. Some of Nansen’s findings on sea ice and the penetration of Atlantic Water into the Arctic Ocean established a benchmark against which we have measured profound changes over the past few decades. In contrast, little was known about the Arctic Ocean’s ecosystem processes prior to the onset of anthropogenic climate change. Nansen’s successes, which paved the way for subsequent research, were gained in part from Indigenous Greenlanders who taught him how to survive in this harsh environment.

PREPRINT OF MANUSCRIPT ACCEPTED AT ELEMENTA: SCIENCE OF THE ANTHROPOCENE "The MOSAiC Distributed Network: observing the coupled Arctic system with multidisciplinary, coordinated platforms"

“…Despite numerous efforts to observe and model the Arctic coupled atmosphere-ice-ocean system there are significant gaps in our knowledge of the relevant processes (Meredith et al, 2019). Prior to MOSAiC, much observational data was lacking for the atmosphere (Bourassa et al, 2013;, the sea ice and snow (Nicolaus et al, 2022), and the ocean (Rabe et al, 2022;Weingartner et al, 2022). The horizontal grid resolution in current global climate or Earth system models used for multi-decadal simulations ranges from 8-250 km, typically 8-100 km in the ocean and coarser in the atmosphere, 25-250 km (Haarsma et al, 2016;Roberts et al, 2019).…”

Information systems practice for the age of consequences

“…Despite potentially large economic benefits for some, these activities will likely further degrade ecosystems; heighten political tensions; and adversely impact livelihoods for human inhabitants, especially indigenous populations, leading to migration [19,190]. Arctic warming will accelerate melting of Greenland ice [70,216] and, in turn, global sea level rise.…”