First ice camp and polarbear visits - Part 1.0

First ice camp: Tuesday May 16 - Sunday May 21


This posting will be divided into 3 parts: Part 1.0 (this one), Part 1.5 and Part 2.


Until Tuesday May 16, Oden had only shortly stopped for measuring ocean water column characteristics with the CTD from the aft of the ship. We had a few ice stations where the scientists were brought to the ice edge by helicopter while Oden was still moving. These ice stations were short, lasted from a few hours to 5 hours. Some scientists are only able to conduct their science if we stay stationary at an ice floe for several days. As our attempt to move further north failed due to thicker ice, we desided to do our first longer ice station - or ice camp - slighly south of 80N. This way, all scientists were able to do their work for the coming daya: via instruments on Oden and/or via instruments or samples collected on the ice, of the snow, at the sea ice edge or from the upper ocean layer.


 

On Tuesday morning, Oden was moored onto a large icefloe of 3km in diameter, 1.8m thick with a 24cm snowlayer ontop of the sea ice. The moorings and the ropes as well as the icefloe can be seen on the photo above at the bottom right, taken on Thursday eve. This icefloe was quite dynamic and moved a lot by the currents and winds during the whole stay at the floe, so that it was hard for Oden to actually be continuously attached at the icefloe. During this 6-day long ice-camp, Oden had to be re-moored onto the ice several times, deattached in the evenings, moving around during the night and then be re-attached to the same icefloe the next day. The stress of the icefloe and the waves also caused ice to be carved away at the edges of the floe and we saw it cracking up - sometimes this happened so fast that some scientists had to quickly go out and get their equipments back onboard before losing them in the Arctic Ocean. As Oden was moored at the icefloe, we drifted with the floe continuously southwards - starting from just below 80N until 79.45N. Before scientists were let out on the ice for the first time, project leaders together with polarbear guards went scouting on the ice to find the perfect locations for some of our stationary working stations: the "met-alley" where we, meteorologists onboard, were going to build our meteorological mast (4m) and a radiometer stand, and the ROV-station, an area that was going to be reserved for a remotely operated underwater vehicle, as well as finding the best spot for doing ice edge measurements.


Due to the strong drifting during lunch on Tuesday, Oden had to be readjusted onto the icefloe, whereafter scientists were let out on the ice. For several of us it was the first time on ice! The general safety-equipments for going onto the ice included a floating suite (or a life west), ice spikes and a radio. The polarbear guards were the first ones to enter the icefloe to load their guns at the gangway. Whenever someone leaves Oden on the ice, we have to use our radios to report to the bridge or "ice control" our ship number and that we are on the ice. Same goes when we are back onboard. This way, it is always known who and how many are on the ice in case of an emergency (e.g. a polarbear). The gangway (photo above top right) was lifted from Oden on the ice which took us onto the ice.


Tuesday was a beautiful day - sunny, windstill and felt super warm, even though the temperatures were below -10 degrees C! Scientists from different work packages had different target regions where they wanted to go. For some of us, the first day on ice included setting up instruments on the ice and then leave them there for the coming days (so that they are passively collecting data - such as our "met-alley") or to make a hole in the ice and mark an area for the ROV (see text and photo below) that would then be operated every day. Some scientists went out daily to do measurements or collect samples while being out on the ice.


Read more about the met-alley and ROV site as well as the polarbear visits in the posts "Part 1.5 and Part 2" of "First ice camp and polarbear visits")

(continues in "First ice camp and polarbear visits - Part 1.5")

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