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My discovery of the Arctic started August 8, 1999, in Brakke 4, a student housing unit in the city of Longyearbyen on the Svalbard Archipelago. The path to Longyearbyen started several months before landing by 78 degrees north. At the time a student at Lyon 1 University, France, I wanted to spend my last year of undergraduate abroad. I found UNIS, the northernmost university in the world, by pure chance; the faculty in charge of student exchange had one of their handbooks on his desk; the cover page showed a student in a heavy jacket with ice sickles all over the face. I instantaneously knew that this was the right choice for me.

 Memories of the ’99 Fall semester are still very vivid to this day. We were only 4 students enrolled in the geophysics program – 3 Germans and myself. Far from being a problem, this small number became our chance to learn more, to explore further the glaciers, fjords and the Arctic Ocean around us, and to interact with our incredible professors to a higher level. Though just an undergraduate, I felt that we were treated like graduate students. It reinforced what I had started to feel all along; entering the Sciences was the right choice for me. 

 I am back in the Arctic for my third time after a research project in 2008 during the International Polar Year with several Norwegian and American colleagues. When I get back to my family in California in a few weeks, I will have learned even more, explored even further what this ocean has to tell, all while interacting with a fine group of students and instructors. Then, it will be my turn to educate others about the many wonders of this remote part of our Blue Planet. If my daughters and students choose to get interested in the Arctic, it will be the right choice for them.

 How will this expedition benefit my research? I am interested in expanding my current research with foraminifera (tiny marine animals that form a shell of calcium carbonate –more on that in a future blog post) to the Arctic. Many of the lectures onboard have lots of information relevant to what I would like to do, and thus provide an important knowledge base upon which I can build future research projects.

 Here I am onboard, to the right in this photo.

 

– Mathieu Richaud

UNIS: The University Centre in Svalbard

Before there were satellites to observe the clouds from above, scientists were only able to visually observe them from below. And now, scientists STILL use visual observations of clouds in research, for a fascinating but simple reason – if you want to be able to directly compare observations before and after the satellite era, you also have to observe them with the same methods before and after. So no matter what technology brings in the future, we will still need to LOOK at the clouds. As one of the scientists onboard previously wrote about, students on this cruise will be assisting scientist Dr. Sasha Chernokulsky in cloud observations, and they got some training on how collect data. We met in the Meteorology (“Met”) Lab, where the computer screens show the ship’s current location, satellite cloud imagery, and ceilometer data (i.e. how many meters high the cloud “ceiling” is). Students will work in shifts, day and night, every hour on the hour, observing the types and concentrations of clouds in the sky. Just like the olden days.

Even if you don’t like graphs, look at this one – it’s so cool. Lija, a scientist on the chemistry team shared a photo with me that gave me a whole new appreciation for the complexity of the ocean. Using data and water samples from the CTD (conductivity, temperature, and depth) instrument that is sent hundreds of meters down into the water, the picture starts to emerge. On the graph below, the vertical axis goes from the surface (the top of the graph) to 550meters deep (the bottom of the graph). The horizontal axis varies for the different-colored data, but in general, the further you go to the right, the bigger the number. Imagine looking at a cross-section, or side view, of the ocean, and here’s what you see:

•     BLUE = temperature. Lots of different currents flow into and around the Arctic. A layer with a distinctly different temperature means that is from a different water mass/location.

•     RED = salinity (salt content). Fresh water is less dense than salt water, so the top layer of the ocean is less salty than lower, denser layers. The top layer is also affected by precipitation and melting.

•     YELLOW = nitrate levels. This tells you about phytoplankton growth – nitrates are stirred up by the wind near the surface, and then consumed by phytoplankton, so that’s why you see lower yellow numbers in shallow water.

•     GREEN = dissolved oxygen. This is an indicator of biomass (living organisms). It is the peak layer for phytoplankton, where maximum photosynthesis is taking place.

Get the picture? Are you seeing the ocean? It’s quite the different view from the one we have from the top!

Everyone onboard has their own professional and scientific goals for this expedition. But everyone (at least the Arctic first-timers), have the same personal goal – to see a polar bear. Sadly I have not personally seen polar bears yet, although several people onboard have! They’re usually pretty far off, but from stories I’ve heard, one person saw a mother and cub, another saw a few bears together, and another saw a polar bear dive into the water. Alice, a scientist onboard, took the photo below where you see endless sea ice. But if you look closely, you’ll see a yellow-ish spot. That’s our friend “Chilly” the polar bear! I also zoomed the picture in a bit so you can see him close-up. But… I did see polar bear tracks myself! (I guess that is an important “step” in the right direction.) We saw the fresh tracks when a few of us were outside on the deck, watching the ice crack and surge out of the water as it crunched and slid along the side of the ship. You can see the footsteps in the photo of the cracked ice. Keep your paws crossed for us that we see more!

We all bought snacks in Norway before boarding the ship, because we were told that we should have some of our favorite food and drinks for the expedition. I think most of us have barely touched the snacks we brought. They feed us really well – meal time is like magic. Everyone who has been on some kind of watch, or off in a lab, or at a lecture, appears from nowhere. At the same time, big meals appear too, thanks to cooks who work all day long providing breakfast, lunch, tea (mid-day snack), and dinner for everyone onboard. Meals always begin with soup, then a combination of meat with potatoes or pasta. And there’s always bread. But follow the rules – sit only at a place where silverware has been set (a ship tradition) and most importantly, don’t be late. If so, you’ll be eating your own snacks for your meal.

My roommate is teaching me Russian – just a few words here and there, enough to get by. After seeing my text, she says ‘Privet’ (pree-vet) is a simpler way to greet people. The word I use most frequently is Spasibo (Spa-sea-baa)’thank you’ to the kitchen crew after one of their incredibly filling meals.  It’s very easy to get used to someone making food for you four times a day! Breakfast is served at 0730, Lunch at 1130, Tea at 1530 (330pm) and Dinner at 1930 (730pm).  In this cold, and with most folks working hard outside, we need all the calories we can get.  Tea is my favorite.  A warm drink and something small to carry you through the afternoon (today, as a special Sunday treat, it was ice cream! In the Arctic! Does life get any more awesome?), and a chance to chat with someone new about the status of their project, is a lovely way to break up the afternoon. It’s pretty much always light out, so the meals help give a sense of time passing. Yesterday, I stayed up too late watching icebergs because the light made it feel more like 330pm than 1000pm! As for the rest of our schedule, Lectures begin at 0900 and go til lunch. We begin again at 1300 (1pm) and continue until 1700 (5pm) with a break for tea. The rest of the evening is ours, although that may not remain so much longer as we begin to help with observational work and other projects. I tend to spend the after lunch and after dinner breaks up on the Heli-deck or the Flying-bridge watching for whatever the ocean chooses to show me.  So far my wildlife count stands at Northern Fulmars, Black-Legged Kittiwakes (both known as ship-following birds), Thick billed Murres (known on this side of the globe as Brunnich’s Guillemot), a pair of Dovekies (Little Auk), an Ivory gull, and a whole family of Pomarine Jaegers (Pomarine Skuas). The Murres were cool because they were in father/fledgling pairs – When a baby murre learns how to fly, Dad is the one responsible for getting him down from the cliffside nest and teaching it the rules of ocean survival. The Pomarine Skuas were awesome too because seeing them is a great chance to watch the food chain in action. Skuas are bullies and will harass Kittiwakes and other gulls/smaller seabirds until they fork over whatever was the latest catch (be this fresh or regurgitated). Although we had to return to a lecture before any serious action went down, it was still wonderful to see the beautiful feather patterns and admire the various color morphs. On my ‘Hoped for list’ are the Northern Gannet, Ross’s Gull, some Terns, and any of the Arctic Marine Mammal species. If there are any suggestions of other species we should be on the look out for, let us know!

 

(Skua picture by Florence van Tulder)

 – Florence van Tulder

During times when we are moving through sea ice, we frequently feel “bumps” (and are many times compelled to go outside or at least look out the window). It is amazing to think that these bumps are not due to rough seas. It is the ship running through sea ice. Then from inside the lower decks you can hear deafening scraping and knocking as the ice moves along the sides of the ship. It’s an unreal thing to hear and feel, when you think about what is really happening.

That’s nearly 2.5 miles down. Moorings can sometimes be used to secure a ship in one location, or they can be dropped down into the deep, and left there to collect data until you come back and take the instruments up and out of the water again. On this cruise, we will be deploying several moorings throughout the cruise that we will leave in place for the next 2 years, until the next expedition in 2015. Use your imagination with the diagram below (for the 3800 meter mooring; others will be deployed at different locations/depths). I know the words are too small to read, but here is what’s going on:

•     Anchor (the bottom rectangle): Block of concrete or metal that will sit on the sea floor, and the only part that will remain when the mooring is taken out of the water.

•     Release Assembly (the two yellow tubes nearest the anchor): Upon returning to take the mooring out of the water, scientists will use a transducer to send signals to the release assembly to unlatch from the anchor. The second tube is a backup, just in case.

•     MMP – MacLane Moored Profiler (the big yellow rectangle): This will slowly go up and down between the two bumpers (small grey rectangles) located at depths of 54 and 754 meters, measuring the water’s conductivity (salt content), temperature, depth (pressure), and currents.

•     ADCP – Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (silver tube with blue top): At about 53 feet down, this will detect motion, or currents, in the water.

•     Location transponder (small yellow tube above ADCP): Scientists will use this piece of equipment, about 50m down, to help locate the mooring on the next expedition.

•     Spheres (the big yellow balls near the top – but still 47-49m below the surface): These will act as a kind of floatation, keeping the mooring straight up and down.

The reason the top of the mooring is 50meters (over 160feet) below the surface is not to stay out of the way of ships. It’s to stay out of the way of ice! And here is one of the real things going into the water (this one was deployed at a depth of several hundred meters) in the Laptev Sea, at 77°N latitude and 124°E longitude.

Since some people are wondering, here’s the answer. It’s actually not much different than home, except for the fact that you can’t drink the water, or even rinse your mouth with it when you brush your teeth. The toilet is kind of like the airplane kind with the loud, scary suction noise, but other than that, pretty normal! You just have to watch your step because you may sway a bit as the ship sways. There is some rough water out here.

When kids (or even adults) release a balloon into the air, it seems like a natural instinct to watch it until it disappears from sight. When scientists release a radiosonde (a fancy word for an instrument like a weather balloon which takes measurements of the atmosphere), they can “watch” it long after it disappears from sight. We’re currently in the Laptev Sea (latitude 77°N, longitude 124°E), and the students in the NABOS (Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System) Summer School onboard will be taking turns assisting Kensuke Komatsu, the lead scientist for the experiment, in the deployment of these balloons. Today, after filling the balloon to a few feet in diameter with helium (which allows it to rise in the atmosphere), Kensuke and student assistant Ioana attached the balloon to a coiled-up 50 meter string and device that will take measurements. The device will take temperature and humidity data, and also has a GPS which allows Kensuke to track the balloon as it rises and moves in the atmosphere. From the temperature and GPS tracking data, the atmospheric air pressure, wind speed and wind direction can also then be monitored. Multiple balloons will be deployed when the ship is stopped at its “stations,” and the goal is to learn about atmospheric conditions over sea ice. What eventually happens to the balloon? POP!