[19-Feb-2024] Gaube, P., Drushka, K., Burnett, J., and Schanze, J.
Presented at the 2024 Ocean Sciences MeetingSummer sea ice melt deposits fresh water at the ocean's surface, which sets the stratification that modulates sea ice growth in the autumn. As our planet warms and summer sea-ice extent dwindles, understanding the mechanisms controlling autumn ice advance becomes more urgent The 2022 NASA Salinity and Stratification at the Sea-Ice Edge (SASSIE) mission measured surface freshwater anomalies from summer ice melt using a fleet of autonomous surface platforms in conjunction with ship and aircraft surveys. To complement four Wave Gliders and dozens of drifting platforms, we developed an autonomous jet-powered surface salinity profiler (JetSSP) that continuously measured pressure (depth), conductivity (salinity), and temperature at the surface (via a salinity snake), and at ~50 cm, ~75 cm, and ~1m using a series of SeaBird CTDs, along with surface meteorology from a weather station. Observations from JetSSP revealed dramatic restratification events in the upper meter of the ocean near the ice edge associated with reduced wind speeds and enhanced shortwave flux into the ocean. These observations provide insight into the very near surface ocean structure associated with coupled air-sea-ice processes in the Arctic. Unfortunately, the SASSIE mission taught us that the JetSSP was not designed to survive the harsh arctic environment and we have begun development of the next generation of unmanned, gas-powered, unsinkable, surface stratification profiling vehicles. This presentation will highlight lessons from SASSIE and JetSSP along with introducing our new concept vehicle currently under development at the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington.