Abstract
Polar sciences are a modern branch of the natural
sciences involving large groups of researchers, and
sophisticated instrumentation contributing indispensable
data for a better understanding of the polar regions and
their impact on the global environment. The fact that a lot
of the necessary data can only be collected by dedicated
research vessels, from permanently manned
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stations, or
during expeditions involving many different disciplines
and substantial logistic efforts, has resulted in complex
and expensive interdisciplinary experiments. These can
only be effectively coordinated within the framework of
close international cooperation.
The ERICON Science Perspective addresses the
entire polar marine scientific community that requires a
research vessel for carrying out their field and sea work
throughout all seasons of the year. It also addresses the
community that needs a deep-sea drilling facility, which
would use the research platform, mainly during the summer
months, to study the structure and properties of the
oceanic crust and the history of the oceanic depositional
environments in polar regions. Deep-sea drilling has only
been done once in the ice-infested waters of the central
Arctic during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program
(IODP) 302, aka, ACEX Coring Expedition. Around
Antarctica substantial progress has been achieved by
using the drilling platforms of the Deep-Sea Drilling
Project (DSDP), the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), and
the IODP, during the ice-free seasons, and by using a
drill rig from the land fast sea ice very close to shore on
the Cape Roberts Project (CRP), and from the ice shelf
in the ANtarctic geological DRILLing project (ANDRILL).
However, in Antarctica, neither the CRP-tools nor the
conventional drilling vessels, which cannot enter iceinfested
waters, are able to cover all desirable drilling
locations. So far, mainly due to the lack of a suitable
ice-capable drilling platform, it has not been possible
to investigate many of these locations. These scientific
targets will now receive renewed attention in this report
(cf. Chapters 3 and 4).
The ERICON scientific program focuses on the
research disciplines and activities that require a platform
with the unique capability of year-round operations in
the central Arctic and Antarctic ice infested waters. This
document is organized in six chapters. Chapters 1 to 5
are dedicated to five major Scientific Core Topics, each
encompassing a number of high-priority key questions
embracing the most important scientific challenges that
should be targeted in the next fifteen years. Chapter 6
focuses on the technological requirements needed to
successfully answer these scientific questions.
The managerial, financial, and organizational structures
for building and managing the vessel, as well as
the technical designs of the research platform, are not
included in the present document, but they have been
elaborated on within the EU FP7 funded EUROPEAN
ICEBREAKER CONSORTIUM “AURORA BOREALIS”
(ERICON-AB) project, of which this Science Perspective
is a component.
The five research topics, around which this Science
Perspective is structured, provide an umbrella under
which technological and scientific research needs and
strategies can be identified. The key questions proposed
in each of the chapters have been intentionally
kept general and of a nature that will require a strong
effort to fulfil, while allowing shorter-term studies to be
undertaken on more specific issues. The research topics
targeted in this Science Perspective are:
• The Changing Polar Oceans, Ice and Atmosphere
• The Polar Marine Biosphere
• The Polar Ocean’s Geological History
• Polar Paleoclimate and Marine Paleoenvironments
• Seafloor Processes and Natural Hazards
A dedicated platform for polar research with drilling
capacities will allow scientists of all polar disciplines to
address the five research topics by establishing interdisciplinary
campaigns with common goals.
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