Results of the First Arctic Heat Open Science Experiment

The Arctic Heat Open Science Experiment was designed to bridge the observation gap at the atmosphere-ice-ocean interface in the Arctic marginal seas using innovative technologies. These included the MRV Air-Launched Autonomous Micro-Observer (ALAMO) float deployed from a specially-equipped NOAA Twin Otter aircraft. The aircraft also carried a new suite of weather and ocean-sensing instruments, along with standard expendable probe systems. These instruments provide ocean and atmospheric observations that span the range from above the marine atmospheric boundary layer to the sea bottom. The flexibility and endurance of the Twin Otter allowed autonomous instruments to be deployed and data rapidly collected over a wide area – in this case from the southern Chukchi Sea to the eastern Beaufort Sea – in a matter of days. As an open science experiment, data were published online as soon as they were collected. This was done to facilitate timely observations for use in weather and sea-ice forecasts, to make data readily accessible for model and reanalysis assimilation, and to support ongoing research activities across disciplines. In this presentation we describe the results obtained by the science and engineering teams, by other users of the data, and our plans for the 2017 field season.