Deploying an O-buoy is a complex and dangerous task. Even putting the pieces together takes the ship’s onboard crane to help do the heavy lifting. This is all just preparation for when it is deployed on the ice. The main job then is to make sure the ice is in a safe condition in which to work before doing anything else. If deemed safe, a hole is drilled through the ice, and a metal tube goes into the water underneath with this “antenna station” (shown in the photo) remaining above the surface. The antenna station takes measurements like temperature and wind speed/direction, and has GPS tracking (if the ice melts, you’ll be able to find it). When in the water, the top of the tube will stay afloat due to the yellow “flotation collar.” The O-buoy apparatus will be stabilized in the sea ice, and measures carbon dioxide, bromine oxide, and ozone in the atmosphere. It’s going to take the ship a couple more days to get to the sea ice (this is summer, and sea ice is at its minimum), so stay tuned for O-buoy deployment, and to see the operations in action!
Hello Lindsay,
It gets exciting to see that real experiments are going to start. I look forward to understanding what kind of measurements the scientists on-board are going to make.
When discussing with the scientists around you, what impression do you get about their views on climate change ? I assume that some of them are coming to Arctic regularly. Do they really see alarming trends compared to previous expeditions ?
Thanks for helping us follow the adventure !
Thank you for the note, I am so glad you are enjoying following along with me and Antoine and the rest of us! I am also looking forward to seeing more of the data coming from all these amazing experiments onboard. As for the scientists onboard and their views of climate change, that is a really BIG question, and we are actually planning to have a discussion session to talk about how scientists communicate this topic to the public – because the public definitely needs to understand more. I’ll keep you posted on that!