MOSAiC project

[Anne]

Arctic research vessel to spend entire year studying sea ice decline

This looks interesting:

Overview
Year-round, detailed, and comprehensive measurements, extending from the atmosphere through the sea-ice and into the ocean of the central Arctic Basin are needed to improve our understanding and modeling of Arctic climate and weather, and enhance Arctic sea-ice predictive capabilities. These observations are needed to provide a process-level understanding of the central Arctic coupled climate system, consisting of dramatically less and thinner sea-ice than in the recent past, as well as a detailed understanding of the processes leading to these sea-ice changes.To obtain the needed measurements, a manned, transpolar drifting observatory is proposed, wherein an ice-hardened ship serves as a central hub for intensive observations of atmospheric, oceanic, sea-ice, biogeochemical, and ecosystem properties over a full annual cycle. This comprehensive information will be expanded to larger spatial scales using a coordinated network of distributed measurements made using buoys, unmanned aerial systems, autonomous underwater vehicles, additional ships, aircraft, and satellites. A broad consortium of nations and funding agencies is needed to facilitate, coordinate, and support such a constellation of central Arctic observations.

http://www.mosaicobservatory.org/

Found it via The Guardian Link

[Tor Bejnar]

Cross post:

You know that movie Armageddon? Well, like that, but the heroes are real.

MOSAiC-Expedition Trailer



MOSAiC Expedition Countdown Series (1)

The countdown begins - only 4 months to go...

[Tor Bejnar]

Cross post:

MOSAiC Expedition Countdown Series (2)

[ArcticMelt2]

Comparing the drift speed of expeditions over the past 100 years clearly indicates an acceleration of the drift. What is the reason? With increased winds (stream) or less ice?

https://www.mosaic-expedition.org/about-mosaic/the-expedition.html

Potential drift trajectory of the Polarstern for the selected starting position at 120° E and 84° N. Colors represent the month of the drift starting in October 2019 and ending in October 2020. The small color bar illustrates the sea ice concentration o (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut)]

The new expedition plans to cross the Arctic in just one year. For comparison, Tara in 2006 took less than two years. And Nansen on the Frame is 3 years old.

https://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/en/m/environment/ocean-climate/il-y-a-10-ans-tara-debutait-sa-derive-arctique/

Tara’s round, flat hull shaped like an olive pit is designed to withstand the extreme pressure exerted by ice. The schooner spent 507 days drifting with the pack ice, driven by currents and winds. Without knowing how long this drift would last, 8 crew members had embarked on a unique experience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nansen%27s_Fram_expedition

September 1893 – August 1896

[ArcticMelt2]

During the past big warming in the Arctic, there was also a case of a ship drift from the Laptev Sea to Spitsbergen. It was the failure of the ship Sedov.

https://www.themaparchive.com/exploration-of-polar-regions-18931941.html

The Soviet icebreaker, Sedov, which served as a floating ice station, became trapped in sea ice and drifted for 812 days in the High Arctic (1937–40), setting a different sort of record when it was rescued by Ivan Papanin, another endurance specialist

As can be seen, the drift rate in the Arctic during modern warming exceeds any other years in more than 100 years of observation.

[ArcticMelt2]

Other works on this topic:

https://www.slideserve.com/ghita/trends-in-arctic-sea-ice-drift-and-role-of-wind-forcing-1992-2009

https://darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org/bitstream/handle/1912/3370/2008GL034791.pdf

Figure 1. Ice drift observations (in terms of speed squared) sorted into (a) winter and (b) summer values. Red circles denote National Ice and Snow Center data, and blue squares Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute data.

It is perfectly noticeable that in the summer the drift speed is greater than in the winter.

It is also clear that the first drifting station at the North Pole in 1937 observed a very low drift velocity compared with the end of the 20th century.

[ArcticMelt2]

Comparing the drift speed of expeditions over the past 100 years clearly indicates an acceleration of the drift. What is the reason? With increased winds (stream) or less ice?

There is an answer to this question.

https://www.slideserve.com/ghita/trends-in-arctic-sea-ice-drift-and-role-of-wind-forcing-1992-2009

https://image1.slideserve.com/1868335/wind-and-sea-ice-speed-in-the-arctic-basin-n.jpg

https://image1.slideserve.com/1868335/92-00-and-00-09-wind-and-ice-drift-trends-n.jpg

The increase in drift velocity is almost exactly due to a decrease in the amount of ice.

Probably, the PIOMAS group due to these data on the drift velocity and has built its famous graph about the reduction volume of sea ice in Arctic over the past 100 years.

[Tor Bejnar]

According to A-Team, there was unprecedented transpolar drift last 'winter' (October-May) - see his May 23^rd post here.

[Andreas T]

I think it is worth mentioning again, there was a transpolar drift by just two norwegian scientists over the 2014/2015 winter. The weekly reports are a fascinating read here:
https://sabvabaa.nersc.no/reports