HR: 0800h
AN: OS51A-0177    [Abstracts]
TI: AURORA BOREALIS - Icebreaker, Drilling Platform and Multi-Purpose Research Vessel
AU: * Kunz-Pirrung, M
EM: Martina.Kunz-Pirrung@awi.de
AF: Stiftung Alfred Wegener Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, Am Alten Hafen 26, Bremerhaven, 27568, Germany
AU: Biebow, N
EM: Nicole.Biebow@awi.de
AF: Stiftung Alfred Wegener Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, Am Alten Hafen 26, Bremerhaven, 27568, Germany
AU: Lembke-Jene, L
EM: Lester.Lembke-Jene@awi.de
AF: Stiftung Alfred Wegener Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, Am Alten Hafen 26, Bremerhaven, 27568, Germany
AU: Thiede, J
EM: Joern.Thiede@awi.de
AF: Stiftung Alfred Wegener Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, Am Alten Hafen 26, Bremerhaven, 27568, Germany
AU: Egerton, P
EM: pegerton@esf.org
AF: European Polar Consortium - European Science Foundation, 1 Quai Lezay Marnesia, Strasbourg Cedex, 67080, France
AB: In spite of the critical role of the Arctic Ocean in climate evolution, it is the only sub-basin of the world's oceans that has essentially not been sampled by the drill ships of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) or the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), and its long-term environmental history and tectonic structure is therefore poorly known. Exceptions are the ODP Leg 151 and the more recent very successful ACEX-expedition of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). This lack of data represents one of the largest gaps of information in modern Earth Science. Therefore, the new research icebreaker AURORA BOREALIS will be equipped with drilling facilities to fulfil the needs of the IODP for a -Mission-Specific Platform- to drill in deep, permanently ice-covered ocean basins. This icebreaker must be also powerful enough to maintain station against the drifting sea-ice cover and will have to be equipped with a dynamic positioning system. This new icebreaker would be conceived as an optimized science platform from the keel up and will allow conducting long, international and interdisciplinary expeditions into the central Arctic Ocean during all seasons of the year. In a long-term perspective the AURORA BOREALIS will also be used to address Antarctic research targets, both in its mode as a regular research vessel as well as a polar drill ship. The construction of AURORA BOREALIS requires several new technical implementations, such as advanced dynamic positioning and deep-sea drilling under a closed sea-ice cover and two moon pools (7 x 7 m), and will provide an extended technical potential and knowledge for marine technology. The scientific and technical details will be presented.
UR: http://www.eri-aurora-borealis.eu
DE: 3036 Ocean drilling
DE: 3094 Instruments and techniques
DE: 4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography (9310, 9315)
DE: 4994 Instruments and techniques
DE: 6344 System operation and management
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting