ABSTRACT
The proposed Weddell GYRE project arises as a natural extension of the International Weddell Sea Oceanographic Expedition conceived in 1966, initiated in 1968, and continuing to the present. With new knowledge derived from these studies, the concept of the more broadly based multidisciplinary Weddell GYRE program has emerged. Similar gyres exist in other polar regions. Indeed, since the historical journey of Fridtjof Nansen, from 1893 to 1896, during which the ship, FRAM, drifted with polar ice in the high Arctic from the Laptev Sea to Spitsbergen, there have been research stations on drifting arctic pack-ice. Taking advantage of capabilities in polar air support and automated data acquisition, repetition of the northern circumpolar course taken by Nansen has been proposed as a multidisciplinary and multinational Nansen Drift Station project. The Polar-Sub-Experiment is a first step toward critical tests of the role of ice in climate dynamics.
