Friederike Fröb and Are Olsen spent 16 days at the G.O. Sars, crossing the North-Atlantic. Photo: Tor de lange

Digging into the subpolar gyre

SNACS - Subpolar North Atlantic Climate States: A three years project (2014 - 2017) funded by the Norwegian Research Council's KLIMAFORSK program
The research project SNACS takes a mulitdisciplinary approach to understand and predict the subpolar North Atlantic.
SNACS will conduct a number of field studies targeting the present behavior of the SPNA. This includes hydrographic cruises, and autonomous sampling from ships of opportunity and drifting boys. These data will be combined with data collected at past campaigns and used to unravel the processes that give rise to the variability we observe today.
SNACS will dig into the past behavior of the SPNA through using high-resolution sedimentary archives that provide information on the surface- as well as deep- ocean conditions.
SNACS will look into the future by employing simulations from the set of models used for the upcoming 5th assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Our observations from the present and from past times will be used to rank the model performance and the best models will be used for a quantitative assessment of SPNA behavior under global warming and how it may feed back on climate development.