National Institute of Polar Research

Observational study of Antarctic ice sheet - sea ice - ocean interaction

Research of Ocean-ice BOundary InTeraction and Change around Antarctica (ROBOTICA)

Principal Investigator  Takeshi Tamura

For a better understanding of the Antarctic climate system

Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean are changing. Acceleration of ice mass loss and warming of the coastal ocean in West Antarctica are problems that substantially affect the global climate system. In East Antarctica, which has been considered stable and has attracted relatively less attention, regional characteristics of interactions among climate subsystems have been recently revealed, and evidence of variations on different time scales from decades to millennia has been accumulating. Despite the growing awareness on the importance of ice-ocean interaction and long-term variabilities off the East Antarctic Coast, quantitative descriptions and understanding of the mechanisms are still insufficient. Given the global impact of the coastal variability through bottom water export, investigations of the mechanisms and variabilities in East Antarctica are indispensable.