DOI: 10.5884/13107
title: Mooring data of the Integrated Beaufort Observatory (iBO), a project from the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment (BREA) Marine Observatories in the Canadian Arctic.

description: The iBO project has supported the deployment of four moorings at key locations identified during the previous northern and southern Beaufort Sea monitoring initiatives (see CCIN xxxx ArcticNet-Industry 2009-2011 moorings and CCIN xxxx BREA 2011-2015 moorings). Since fall 2015, BRG and BR1 from BREA were redeployed along with two new moorings BRK and BR3. For every year of deployment, each mooring line was equipped with various oceanographic instruments attached at different depths from approximately 150 m to 750 m. Moored instruments include conductivity-temperature sensors, ice profiling sonars, particle analyzers, current meters, current profilers, and sediment traps. Datasets include currents, ice draft and velocities, water levels, temperature, salinity and turbidity, chlorophyll, suspended particulate size and concentration, and vertical carbon flux. Data collected were quality assessed/quality controlled (QA/QC) following the Climate and Forecast (CF http://cfconventions.org/) conventions, and building upon the open-source Integrated Marine Observatory System (IMOS) toolbox developed for Matlab© by the Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN). The four moorings provided ready to use quality data for the period 2015-2017. BR1 provided an extra year of data for 2017-2018, whereas BR3, BRG, and BRK are still at sea and being recovered (Fall 2019). The program ended officially in 2018; however, Amundsen Science and its collaborators maintain the observatory and monitoring capacity in the region with one mooring BRG pending new funding and interests for the program.
description: The integrated Beaufort Observatory (iBO) project is an element of the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment (BREA) Marine Observatories in the Canadian Arctic. The project aims at consolidating the monitoring of crucial oceanographic and environmental parameters collected in the Beaufort Sea since 2009 through diverse initiatives related to the environmental assessment of exploration drilling in the Beaufort Sea (see CCIN 11925 - ArcticNet-Industry 2009-2011 moorings and CCIN 11975 - BREA 2011-2015 moorings). More specifically, the Amundsen Gulf region, also known as the "Cape Bathurst Polynya", was previously identified as an area of increased biological activity due to an earlier retreat of sea ice in spring and frequent upwelling of nutrient-rich waters that develops along Cape Bathurst and near the eastern edge of the Mackenzie Shelf. The iBO moorings (BRG, BRK, BR1, and BR3) helped form three shelf-slope arrays that examine the spatial variability in shelf-slope processes in the southeastern Beaufort Sea. These moorings continue a long-term integrated observation of ice, water circulation, and particle fluxes established in the southern Beaufort Sea. BREA is supported by the Environment Studies Research Fund (ESRF), Imperial Oil Resources Ventures Limited, the Program on Energy Research and Development (PERD), and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). The iBO project is maintained via collaboration among ArcticNet, Amundsen Science, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Golder Associates. The Canadian Coast Guard has provided at-sea support using the icebreakers CCGS Amundsen and CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier.