Damocles and related modelling and observing activities in the Eastern Arctic Ocean

DAMOCLES is an European Union "Integrated Project" (December 2005-December 2009) representing a major contribution of the EU to the International Polar Year. Essentially this ambitious project concerns the fate of Arctic Sea-Ice under changing atmospheric and oceanic conditions based on innovative in situ and space observations and the use of the most advanced numerical models for data integration and assimilation for sensitivity studies and prediction. DAMOCLES observing activities involve the development of new High Technology required for collecting the missing data we need related to sea-ice thickness distribution, atmospheric inversion and boundary layers, ocean surface mixed layers, the cold halocline and the atlantic layer and the radiative balance. Dedicated in situ observations in the lower atmosphere, in the upper oceanand through the sea-ice, as well as remote sensing from space and High-tech developments represent a major contribution to the project. DAMOCLES modelling activities aim at understanding processes relevant for the reduction of Arctic sea-ice extent, which is currently observed and predicted from climate scenario simulations. Regional, global and process models are further developed and utilized (1) to explore the sensitivities of the Arctic climate system, (2) to assess the predictability of Arctic variability, (3) to quantify model sensitivities, and (4) to carry out regional Arctic climate scenarios. In addition, data assimilation methods are further developed for an Arctic Ocean reanalysis and better predictive capabilities of ocean, sea-ice and atmosphere conditions. The reanalysis makes use of different kinds of data such as T/S profiles, sea ice observations and drifter data from DAMOCLES and other IPY projects as well as from pre-IPY campaigns. In this presentation we will select some preliminary results both in the domain of modelling and observations in the context of DAMOCLES.