The oceanographic part of the ACSIS (North Atlantic Climate System Integrated Study) project uses sustained observations from the North Atlantic, gathered during other observational programs, such as RAPID, Argo and OSNAP, to generate ocean heat budgets. The overarching objective of the ACSIS project is to enhance the UK’s capability to detect, attribute and predict changes in the North Atlantic Climate System, comprising: the North Atlantic Ocean, the atmosphere above it including its composition, and interactions with Arctic Sea Ice and the Greenland Ice Sheet. The data will be combined with models to develop new products. ACSIS is delivered by a partnership between six NERC Centres, National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), National Oceangraphy Centre (NOC), British Antarctic Survey (BAS), National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM), Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and the UK Met Office. ACSIS has been fully funded for five years (2016-2021) through the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Long Term Science commissioning, which aims to encourage its research centres to work closely together to tackle major scientific and societal challenges. The oceanographic data are held by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC), the atmospheric, cryospheric and model data are held by the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA).

Manual snow density (km m-3) from a 1-m deep snow profile from southwest Greenland (Camp Raven, 66.48 N, 46.30 W, 2331 m asl) during Summer 2024. The snow profile measurements were made adjacent to an autonomous atmospheric and glaciological platform (the SLEIGH) as part of the ICECAPS-MELT (Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric state, and Precipitation - MEasurements along Lagrangian Transects) experiment. Manual snow density was measured using American Avalanche Association classifications and procedures (Snow, Weather, and Avalanche Guidelines, 4th Edition, 2022). This profile was made 2-3 m away from the SLEIGH. This work was US-led, US-UK collaboration co-funded by the US National Science Foundation and the UK National Environment Research Council.