Arctic Climate Impact Tour 2011

Nick Toberg and Till Wagner went to the North Greenland Sea in September 2011, to measure the properties and thickness of the sea ice aboard the Greenpeace ship ARCTIC SUNRISE - to document their work they started writing this blog.

As the ice was reaching a new record low (see the NSIDC sea ice extent graph) this year, we went back to carry on our work.

Last year, we were joined by SCANLAB, who performed 3d laser scans of the surface of the ice. They are on board again this year, but now we're getting the bottom as well: Hanumant Singh from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is joining with his team to get 3d profiles of the underside of the ice.

So now, for a historic first, we got the whole 3d picture of sea ice floes in the Arctic Ocean.

On board as well this year was the master of it all, our group leader Professor Peter Wadhams.

After the Arctic Climate Impact Tour, Peter and Till travelled to West Greenland and took part in expedition Operation Iceberg - a BBC funded science project that was subsequently featured in the 2 part BBC 2 documentary Operation Iceberg.

14/09/2011

Fire from ice

I'm relaxing now in Longyearbyen at a coffee shop after another eventful week at sea, listening to Till interview with a sort of 'local voices' archive project that is trying to take stock of the daily going ons in Svalbard. As much as I enjoy the solitude and stimulating beauty of working directly on the ice, it's nice to sit and be warm in a... who am I kidding? I never want to leave the ice when I'm working on it.


For our most recent outing into the ice, we tackled one floe that Arne, the ice pilot, and I found by helicopter. It didn't stay together very long, as we were continually hit by a swell that eventually broke it in two. The breakage (un)luckily occurred over-night and was observed from the ship's bridge, instead of cracking apart while we were on it, as happened the week before. We spent the day waiting for the weather to clear, drifting in the ice, until the decision was made by Mr Happy to let us work, with a skeleton crew on the ice. We estimated 1.5-2 hours to drill the 10 holes we needed in the freezing blizzard and just pulled it off, in time for a triumphant 2100 departure time back to Longyearbyen. It felt good to put the finishing touches on the floe in a dramatic fashion and I thoroughly enjoyed the ship's sauna that night.



I made use of my time in Longyearbyen to see UNIS and visit Professor Marchenko to talk about pressure ridges. It was a fruitful meeting and I look forward to collaborating with him in the future. After a good night out to celebrate Ronnie's (our amazing on-board chef) birthday with the crew at Svalbar, the local watering hole, we just about have our land-legs back. Last night we also welcomed Matt, to replace Will. It's sad to see Will go, as he's been a charismatic and almost chimerical presence on the ship.

But it's back to the boat soon, and we're departing at 1500 for a two day voyage to the ice. This time we won't be as far north, only about 80º1 N but now about 2º W. It should be a rolling, sea sickness inducing time, and it'll be interesting to see how the new crew hold up.


Arne videoing ice floes from the heli.

A beautiful floe we landed next to, with a ridge that looked promising. Unfortunately, the floe was too unstable to work on. 
And here are a few links to our exploits in the press:

http://www.daylife.com/article/00MN6UzbYy4DQ?q=Greenpeace

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/09/08/arctic-ice-measured-with-_n_953505.html

http://blueplanetnews.org/2011/09/08/experts-drill-arctic-ice-to-fathom-speed-of-melt-2/

http://in.news.yahoo.com/photos/nick-toberg-part-team-scientists-cambridge-trying-why-photo-112144966.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/joss-garman/skating-on-thin-ice_b_961559.html 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cdw49JPThc
at 03:52

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