stunning video

by our on board cinematographer steven nugent...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUZJYEM0ixc

Scan Snapshots

this is what Will and Matt have been doing...

Sitting on the ice, staring at The Sun

(by till)

if you ever considered buying a copy of The Sun - today would be a good choice I reckon. Or you can go for the more environmentally friendly version:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3821593/This-is-where-ice-comes-to-die.html

oh yes, and there should be some pretty pictures in tomorrow's edition as well.

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

view from above

A first image from the heli, testing the GoPro cameras. We were working on the big floe next to the ship (by till).

More fog, bears and cracks - and now snow

quick update.

So we've been back in the ice for three days now, and the Arctic has not exactly been forthcoming. We've been fogged in almost constantly - and whenever the fog teases us by opening up a little bit it starts raining, and lately snowing quite heavily. Yesterday a big solitary bear circled the ship for a bit and then seemed to settle just at the edge of the fog line, as if to say, you might not always see me - but I'm here! 

Nick and I just gave an interview to the Greenpeace video man, in basically a blizzard - so I'm hopeful we'll look pretty hard.  The southafrican media team has been really unobtrusive and pleasant to work with. 

Apart from fog-inhibited aerial imagery we've been able to do some good work - Will's been busily scanning, yesterday I managed to collect over 1000 survey points, the result is pictured here. 

Nick extracted some impressive samples with the corer and the crew has continued drilling like pros. 

So, all is good here, tonight we'll be heading back to Longyearbyen to pick up Sun and Time Magazine representatives... should be an interesting next leg...

bye for now and somebody please send us up some sunshine - or at least a fairly powerful fog dispeller. 

oh, and there should be a fairly big piece in the independent on sea ice (maybe mentioning us) tomorrow

BEARS!

(by till)

mother and cub curiously investigating the new intruders...