FRAMZY 2002 - Second Field Experiment on Fram Strait Cyclones and their Impact on Sea Ice

The field experiment FRAMZY (in German: Framstraßen-Zyklonen; in English: Fram Strait Cyclones) 2002 took place in the Fram Strait region between Greenland and Spitsbergen and between 76-83¿N during the period 25 February to 25 March 2002. It was the second field experiment (following FRAMZY 1999) on cyclones in the Fram Strait and their impact on sea ice. The objectives of FRAMZY 2002 were to sample a data set in order to understand the processes of cyclone generation and sea ice forcing by the cyclones and to estimate the quality of atmospheric models in analysing and forecasting the cyclones and the quality of sea ice models in simulating the cyclone impacts on the sea ice. FRAMZY 2002 also aims to clarify the role of Fram Strait cyclones in the large interannual variations of the North-to-South sea ice transport through the Fram Strait. To reach the objectives measurements were taken simultaneously in the atmosphere and of the sea ice and covered a wide range of scales from the synoptic (cyclone) to the turbulent scale (turbulent fluxes at the air-ice interface). Measurements were taken in-situ by 14 autonomous ARGOS ice buoys, the Finnish Research Vessel Aranda and the German Research Aircraft Falcon and were supplemented by satellite data from NOAA-AVHRR, RADARSAT and DMSP-SSM/I. FRAMZY 2002 was the second one in a series of five field experiments (1999,2002,2007,2008) carried out in the frame of the Collaborative Research Centre 512 (Cyclones and the North Atlantic Climate System) funded by the German Science Foundation. In addition to the published datasets several other measurements were performed during the experiment. Corresonding datasets will be published in the near future and are available on request. Details about all used platforms and sensors and all performed measurements are listed in the fieldreport. The following datasets are available on request: ground data at RV Arand