EPOC and its Arctic elements were presented in a pitch presentation by Laura de Steur (Norwegian Polar Institute) during the EU Polar Cluster Community Meeting (18 February 2023) at the Arctic Science Summit Week. The session provided an overview of the EU Polar Cluster and an opportunity for EU Polar Cluster member projects to share information, find synergies, and explore potential for collaboration – as well as space for discussions.
EPOC will provide a comprehensive observationally based estimate of AMOC heat and freshwater transport variability, from the Arctic
gateways to the South Atlantic. These data, jointly with coupled and ocean-only models, will be used to evaluate the relative importance of northern vs southern polar sources of heat/freshwater to AMOC variability and feedbacks to determine how the world ocean circulation – and the polar oceans in particular – link to the AMOC. More specifically, EPOC will determine the volume, heat and freshwater transports into and out of the Arctic over 2004-2020 using an observational inversion, assess origins of heat transport into the Arctic and the relationship between Arctic freshwater export and freshwater transport at lower latitudes, and generate glider-based transport estimates in an Arctic gateway.
The Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) was organised by the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), hosted by the Austrian Polar Research Institute (APRI), and held at the University of Vienna. ASSW provides opportunities for coordination, cooperation and collaboration between the various scientific organisations involved in Arctic research. It includes Business and Community Meetings as well as a Science Symposium. This year’s theme: The Arctic in the Anthropocene.
