SOS on the radio

An hour ago everyone was happily plodding along, the AUV, or robot, or fish as the crew like to call it was hanging over the side of the ship, working her way through her standard warm-up exercises when the radio sprung to life: a small local cruise ship was calling for help - it had run aground 10 miles south of Longyearbyen and the Arctic Sunrise, being an (almost) mighty icebreaker turns out to be the strongest ship in the area. So the engines were rapidly fired up, the anchors pulled in and right now we're on our way to hopefully save the `Polargirl' (no panic though, apparently all passengers are safe and sound). That's all we know for now, internet might go any second so I'll just quickly post this. Do not worry though, because Captain Haddock has taken over the helm:

Heading North Again

(by till)

Hello everyone. We're going back North. And this time we've got some exciting plans. Having shown last year that you can get amazing scans of the top surface of the ice using ScanLAB's scanning expertise, we're joined this year by the world leader in Polar AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) operations, Hanu Singh and his team from Woods Hole. They will put their vehicle under the ice to sonar scan the underside, complementing the laser scanned top and create a perfect 3d virtual replica of the ice floes that we're studying.

We'll try and update this blog (semi-regularly) over the next couple of weeks.
After that, Prof Peter Wadhams and I will join the BBC for Operation Iceberg in Baffin Bay (West Greenland), but more on that later.

Anyway - welcome back and I hope you'll enjoy following us around the great white North the next few weeks. To give you a flavour of what we do, here is a ScanLAB scan of the ARCTIC SUNRISE (this picture actually appeared in the June edition of Wired magazine - see also http://www.scanlabprojects.co.uk/)

4 french shorts on ARTE

(by till)
I found these 4 great videos which were aired on ARTE in October, covering all aspects of the cruise in a fun way:

Preparations:

http://global.arte.tv/fr/2011/10/24/operation-calotte-glaciaire-les-preparatifs/

Life on Board:

http://global.arte.tv/fr/2011/10/25/operation-calotte-glaciere-2-la-vie-a-bord/

First Measurements:


http://global.arte.tv/fr/2011/10/26/operation-calotte-glaciaire-3-premieres-mesures/

Asking Tricky Questions:


http://global.arte.tv/fr/2011/10/27/operation-calotte-glaciaire-4-forages-et-mesures-de-la-banquise/

about Time

(by till)
Back to work in Cambridge now, we'll hopefully be able to link you to some new exciting scan animations soon. But for the Time being, I just found this great article:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2095114,00.html
(Time Magazine, 27/09/2011)

the end (for now)

(by till)

Arctic Sunrise just off Pyramiden, Svalbard (photo: Nugent)

after a long journey and a number of incredibly expensive meals in longyearbyen, tromso, oslo, we've made it back, safe and sound. And for once the sun is shining in Cambridge, so that's good.
It's been an incredible journey and we would like to thank everyone who helped us along the way, there was so much support from all sides, thank you!

Here's a couple more links:

There was a second feature in the Sun, the day after they had the 'where ice comes to die' story, this time a more cuddly polar bear story:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3823554/Cold-play.html

For our german audience a piece by Greenpeace Germany

http://www.greenpeace.de/themen/meere/nachrichten/artikel/sommereis_im_arktischen_ozean_erneut_auf_tiefstand/

And an interview with me on the Australian breakfast radio:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2011/3312735.htm

Nick Cobbing was our onboard photographer, and his website is absolutely brilliant, full of the most beautiful photographs, and hopefully there will also be a story on our expedition up there soon:

http://www.nickcobbing.co.uk/

And finally one more picture of our ship:

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...