Climate modelers differ over the future of the Arctic sea ice cover.
Some models predict that a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could result in complete melting of the Arctic ice cap in five decades, according to Mike Ledbetter, director of the National Science Foundation's Arctic System Science program. The forecasts of other models are less extreme. Ed Andreas and Kerry Claffey were involved in studies of the atmospheric boundary layer, while Don Perovich, Jackie Richter-Menge, Bill Bosworth and Bruce Elder focused on ice thermodynamics. The tower is instrumented with sensors to measure air temperature, humidity, wind speed, and the turbulent fluxes of momentum and sensible and latent heat. All six of the deployment-phase group will be returning to the ice at various times throughout the year and will be joined by Terry Tucker, Matthew Sturm, John Govoni, Roy Belyea, and Jon Holmgren.