standing scientific group on geosciences - Scientific Committee on ...

XXVIII SCAR Delegates Agenda 4.3 Paper 14
• Polar Ocean Gateways (POG)
Polar Ocean Gateways is built on the observation that world oceans are primary drivers
for the climatic state of the Earth and its global environmental changes as they carry.
Exchanges of energy and matter in polar water between the Arctic Ocean, the world
oceans, and around Antarctica (Antarctic Circumpolar Current), appear to be the most
significant ones in the global circulation. These currents are steered and restricted by
seafloor topography, which has been formed by tectonic and magmatic activities.
Under<strong>standing</strong> the development of these polar ocean gateways is essential for
under<strong>standing</strong> the consequences of water mass exchange on the global climate, from long
geological time-scales to present. Establishing the detailed histories of the shallow and
deep-water seaways will enable a close correlation with palaeo-climate observations
collected across the globe. Focussed studies of tectonic, magmatic, sedimentary,
biostratigraphic and biological evolutionary processes, as well as investigations of the
past and present oceanographic conditions in the polar gateways, will provide the
constraints for numerical simulations of palaeo-current systems and palaeo-climate.
Proposed Planning Strategy
The proposed programmes are in various stages of development. Drilling projects are already
planned (e.g. ANDRILL) and will yield significant data and results during the IPY period,
but other large projects, such as examining the physical and biological processes in polar
oceans, will require dedicated ship and air support provided by national operators. The
overall goal within each program is to provide high quality data-sets that will provide the
necessary constraints for numerical modelling of ice-land-ocean-atmosphere interactions.
Individual programmes will generate their own conferences and workshops, but as they
proceed joint meetings will become an effective way of disseminating and sharing
information. Appropriate venues for such joint meetings will be future SCAR
interdisciplinary symposia. In addition the huge data sets that will be generated will be made
public available through the information system PANGAEA which is operated by ICSU
World Data Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (WDC-MARE) data
exchange/storage with PANGAEA data bank.
Linkages Among the Programmes and With IPY Themes
The aims of these three programmes are fundamentally complementary. ACE is focused on
long-term Antarctic history with emphasis on high-resolution records from particular timeslices,
and to test and evaluate results with other global databases and modelling. POG and
BIPOMAC are designed to collect data from both Polar Regions, but each programme
focuses on critical time periods and processes with emphasis on global teleconnections and
consequences.
The three programmes are further targeted directly at three of the themes identified in the
Initial Outline Science Plan prepared by the ICSU Planning Group:
Theme 2: the acquisition of key data sets necessary to understand factors controlling
change in the polar environment.
Theme 3: the establishment of a legacy of multidisciplinary observational networks.
Theme 4: the launch of internationally coordinated, multidisciplinary expeditions into
new <strong>scientific</strong> frontiers.
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