Slippery Ice and Freezing Knees: On and Away

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.

10/07/2012

On and Away

(by till)

An abandoned Russian mining settlement presented a great backdrop for the grounded Polargirl. A handful of Norwegian inflatables were circling the stranded cruise ship whilst a tiny coastguard vessel was pulling valiantly at its bow when we arrived at the scene. We attached a line to Polargirl's backside and the Arctic Sunrise pulled forcefully for about 10 minutes - then the grounded ship slipped backwards into freedom, an audible sigh of relief all round and thankful Norwegian sailors waved us goodbye. We've set sail again and are now heading north - first destination: 79. 32' N, 0. 40' E. This might be the last internet for a few days (and quite honestly, I'm not completely unhappy about that). So I leave you with a few impressions from the ship's hold: