With financial support from ArCS’ program for overseas visits by young researchers, I visited the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Host Researcher: Prof. Fiamma Straneo) in San Diego, USA from 29 January to 9 February, 2018. Prof. Straneo is a physical oceanographer studying high latitude oceanic processes and their role in the climate system, including ice sheet-ocean interactions. The aims of my visit to the institution are to introduce my newly developed observational system and to discuss the collected physical oceanographic data with scientists in the physical oceanography group. Within this observational system, we deployed temperature, conductivity, and pressure sensors at depths of 5 and 100 m in a fjord in Greenland. This was done by lowering the cable-attached sensors from the edge of the glacier front. The observation allows us to gain insights on how the glacier melts in the ocean interior during summer.
During my visit, I have had an opportunity to give a talk at a seminar, where I was able to solicit advices regarding the initial analysis and interpretation of the physical oceanographic data, which I had collected in a fjord near the boundary between ocean and glacier. Additionally, I was able to obtain the result of heat flux between glacier ice and seawater based on my observational data, which was calculated using a numerical model developed by Prof. Straneo’s research group. More importantly, my discussions with scientists in the physical oceanography group highlighted some research issues that need to be addressed. I am resolved to continue working on these issues with support from Prof. Straneo and her research group.
Naoya Kanna (Hokkaido University, a member of theme 2)
Discussion with scientists in physical oceanography group. Prof. Straneo is third from the left.
Dinner with post docs and students in Prof. Straneo’s lab.
