DAMOCLES is an integrated ice-atmosphere-ocean monitoring and forecasting system designed for observing, understanding and quantifying climate changes in the Arctic.
DAMOCLES aims at reducing the uncertainties in our understanding of climate change in the Arctic and their impacts. The Arctic over the last 2-3 decades has warmed more than other regions of the world, and the sea-ice cover has decreased significantly in the same period. A first-order scientific and societal question is whether the Arctic perennial sea-ice will disappear in a few decades (or even faster, as predicted by some state-of-art climate models).
Developing an integrated ocean monitoring and forecasting system combining acoustic tomography, gliders, measurements and ice-ocean modelling to improve the estimates of the heat, mass and freshwater transport through the Fram Strait.
The large gap in data from the Arctic Ocean introduce severe uncertainties in detection of temperature and salinity changes, understanding of ocean-ice interactions and in modelling of processes and climate. During the International Polar Year from 2007 - 2009 several new instruments and platforms for ocean observations are deployed and the collection of data is significantly enhanced. There is, however, little support and commitment to continue these observations after IPY.
