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blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #700 on: March 21, 2020, 07:56:45 AM »
MOSAiC Science lectures - Arctic Sea Ice Ecology

Link >>

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #701 on: March 22, 2020, 09:56:49 PM »
It looks like the Polarstern has shifted position or the radar configuration has changed
One lead shuts and another one opens.

Added a comparison of today's S1B with oct6. ctr
Akademik Federov still in shot
« Last Edit: March 22, 2020, 11:18:10 PM by uniquorn »

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #702 on: March 23, 2020, 12:00:16 PM »
radar update. The ice to the north west looking stronger during that episode.

Phil.

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #703 on: March 23, 2020, 03:03:08 PM »
Not seen anything recently from A-team, was wondering about the current position of the Polarstern, since there seems to be a strong flow out of the Fram it would seem that the expedition might leave the ice sooner than they expected?

psymmo7

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #704 on: March 23, 2020, 05:27:03 PM »
Here is an English language transcript of the podcast called "Arctic Drift" from the MOSAiC website that is otherwise only available in German. It was posted there on 21. March but it the "now" it refers to was probably sometime in the week of the 15th March, when the Polarstern was drifting South rather rapidly.

MOSAIC_AUDIOLOGBOOK14



Commentator Audio Now.....The  Audio-Logbook.

Torsten Kanzow:  my name is Torsten Kanzow: and I’m leader of the third leg of MOSAiC. I’m a physical oceanographer and work at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar- and Ocean- Research.

Commentator: In the meantime, the crew of the third leg of the MOSAiC expedition has reached the Icebreaker Polarstern and is already continuing scientific work. The expedition leader Torsten Kanzow and his team had to endure a journey there that was not only a very arduous and challenging, but also took much longer than originally planned.
 
Torsten Kanzow: we successfully completed the journey here to the MOSAiC ice floe, to the Polarstern, on board a Russian icebreaker the Captain Dranitsyn, and the journey from Tromsø up to 88 degrees North, almost to the North Pole   took a total of four weeks. And I would say it featured a number of challenges.  Immediately after our departure from Tromsø on 27. January we anchored in a neighbouring fjord for the first four or five days because we had to weather the bad conditions on the open ocean and could only continue when they’d passed. We reached the edge of the ice in the Barents sea relatively quickly
but then we suffered an excruciating slow passage through the ice that lasted for several weeks and during that time it wasn’t really predictable how long it would take until we reached the ice floe. We tried to maintain a  lot of contact with the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, that was closely following what we were doing. At some stage we realised that to some extent  it was going to be a battle with the fuel reserves of the Dranitsyn, so that at some point different options as to how we could manage the exchange with the participants of the previous leg were brought up. There was lots of discussion about whether perhaps helicopters could succeed in bridging the distance between the Dranitsyn and the Polarstern for the last part of the trip or whether the journey time of the Dranitsyn should be extended, and in the end the last variant was chosen. This was because what our home base in Bremerhaven was able to organise was that, in effect, another icebreaker would set off to sail in the direction of the Dranitsyn, to meet her in the ice  as she was returning to Tromsø after  having brought us to the floe, and refuel her. 

Torsten Kanzow: we actually arrived at the floe at the beginning of March, when the conditions had already changed so that we could see the first light of the Arctic dawn, whereas during the whole journey there we’d been in complete darkness, and so I think naturally we were very, very  relieved when we finally arrived. This is because for many of the expedition’s participants it was of decisive importance to be able to set up their experiments and do on site research. After months and in some cases years of preparation for many of us it would have been very, very distressing and shattering if we hadn’t managed to get here. So, we were very, very glad when we covered the last miles and were able to moor on the MOSAiC floe.

Commentator: after the long and gruelling trip, even before he arrived at Polarstern itself, the new expedition leader was rewarded with a visual treat.

Torsten Kanzow: as soon as we came within range of  the helicopter, it was already the case for me that I was flown to the Polarstern as part of the vanguard from the Dranitsyn, so to speak, to arrange details of the exchange between the participants of the second and third legs. What that meant was that the vanguard was able to actually observe the observatory from the air and that on a very, very beautiful day on which the dawn light could be clearly seen for the first time.  It was an absolutely breath-taking flight and an awesome sight. Then at the first opportunity after I landed,  I looked out of the window of the Polarstern at the observatory and it was of course totally, totally different to just looking at something I had, till then, only known from pictures. Then came the realisation that I was there at last and that all that travelling had been worth it.

Torsten Kanzow: as it happened, I went to the Ocean-City on the day of my arrival. My colleagues, whom I know from the Alfred-Wegener-Institute had invited me there. In the  Ocean-City measurements of the ocean are being made, mainly physical measurements, but water samples are also being taken. My colleagues are active there almost every single day and what it involves is a small tent that has been placed on pontoons on the ice and, in the middle of the tent there is a hole through the ice, so that you can see through the sea ice down to the water. Measuring instruments are put into the water, through this hole, to allow measurements and samples to be made at depths of up to 4000 metres.

Commentator: The handover of the scientific monitoring stations on the ice floe took several days and was hampered the extreme temperatures there. After successful completion of the handover the new team of leg three is correspondingly relieved and motivated to be able to finally get on with their real work.

Torsten Kanzow: It was a phase during which we had extremely low temperatures. We had temperatures of around minus 40. We had good visibility, but it was very, very cold. At such cold temperatures the mechanical devices on the ships and all the mechanical devices that are required to move freight from one ship to other are naturally operating at the limit of their capabilities.  The hydraulic systems of the cranes were not operating well. In addition, we had the situation that  the Dranitsyn wasn’t moored directly next to the Polarstern, but a kilometre away on the same floe. This was done on purpose to hinder any destruction of the ice in the vicinity of the Polarstern as a result of the arrival of the Dranitsyn. So, our colleagues prepared a sort of small road on the ice floe.   A path on the ice was cleared and for the first couple of days  the exchange of materials and personnel was really rather sluggish, because of the problems that I’ve just mentioned, but then things improved as the handling of the individual pieces of equipment could be, so to speak, better adapted to the conditions. And so, after five or six says we were through with the exchange and hadn’t just transferred all the freight from the Dranitsyn to the Polarstern, but also all the personnel, who were conveyed from one ship to the other on sleds. This was a phase during which, at the same time, the scientists from the second leg had to hand over and explain the use experimental equipment and sensors. It was a very, very intense period. But I believe that I, and everyone else who participated, was very glad when it ended and one could get cracking on one’s own.  We all appreciated it a lot to have the floe in our hands, so to speak, and to get to work as individual teams.

Commentator: Despite this, even for Kanzow and his team, the new surroundings are still very unfamiliar and so even after the first few days he still doesn’t feel quite at home.

Torsten Kanzow: I believe that that takes just a little more time. I haven’t yet inspected everything. Naturally, to begin with, we were faced with the challenge of familiarising ourselves with everything and setting up our daily routines, and then getting on with our projects. I was very strongly involved in events here on board and couldn’t be out in the field as often as many of my colleagues. I hope that that will now soon change. In particular, its self-explanatory that we don’t just have to keep the scientific side of things going, but we must also be logistically in the position to service and maintain our infrastructure to ensure that we can always be reached, especially by air. I am already active in this respect and am trying to fulfil this part of my responsibilities

Commentator: Since a few days after the arrival of the first scientists of leg one in September the sun hasn’t risen above the horizon. The polar night is now coming to an end. During the last week it’s gradually been getting lighter and the first sunrise can be seen.

Torsten Kanzow:  We would have been really happy to happy to experience the moment of seeing the sun for the first time, but today we didn’t see it. It wasn’t visible for the whole day, because we have had very, very strong winds here, bad visibility and to some extent low cloud. So today wasn’t much different from the day before. It was an exciting day, because our position shifted quite a lot and we were kept very busy organising how we could protect certain pieces of equipment from cracks in the ice. It began yesterday and has continued till now. That meant that we had a lot of practical worries to deal with rather than concerning ourselves about the sun. However, a celebration party is planned to welcome the sun. We still have to decide on the day, because at the moment the weather  really isn’t good enough for grilling outside. 

Commentator: Because of the extreme conditions in the Arctic, both the scientists and the technical staff are continually confronted with new challenges. The new expedition leader is particularly impressed by the tireless efforts of the logistics team.

Torsten Kanzow: When we arrived on the floe, a fleet of various vehicles was handed over to us. We could move around on the floe with them or use them, for instance to prepare a landing strip. It included  2 Pisten-Bullis and 8 Skidoos. But then within a few days, because of the extremely low temperatures and other technical defects we were only in a position to start 3 of the Skidoos and neither of the Pisten-Bullis could be used.  That meant that we were able to see with our own eyes how quickly the technical requirements, that are a prerequisite for working in the field here, can become shaken or even be forgone as the result of extremes of temperature and other technical difficulties.  What particularly impresses me was how the people here are applying themselves to getting all our equipment back into working order under these extreme conditions. Motors are being dismantled and parts removed, fuel lines cleaned and other diverse operations carried out at temperatures of minus 30 or minus 40. So, by now we already have 7 of the skidoos up and running  and today both Pisten-Bullis were running again. That naturally requires  the logistics people to invest a lot of energy in keeping us fully operational.

Commentator: Apart from the scientific projects the handover to the crew of the next leg must also be planned. This is should or rather must take place by air. The existing airstrip must be modified for this.

Torsten Kanzow: Until now, one of the foci of my work was to try and find and survey a site that would be suitable for a landing strip. This is because the exchange of the next cohort of scientists at the beginning of April should be taking place by air. That’s something to which we must give priority. We do have a landing strip already, but it’s not suitable for the type of aircraft that we are planning to deploy for the exchange. So we’re working on an alternative, but very recently the conditions changed rather abruptly as a result of the mobility of the ice, through cracks and leads that have appeared in the ice. I believe that we now have to work in parallel to ensure that working conditions on the ice remain safe. That must certainly be a focus that is assured or to see, after the storm that we are currently experiencing has ended, how we are still able to get to our measuring equipment.  How can we make sure that it‘s possible to carry on working safely? I think that’s one focus and another one is to work on the options for the landing strip. A third focus, that I am attempting to set up scientifically, is to enable physical oceanographic measurements to be carried out. Together with other scientists we are developing an experiment to understand the processes that go on in these areas of open water that appear as the result of cracks and leads opening and that are in direct contact with the atmosphere. That’s a situation that interests many of us here. It’s a situation in which a lot of  oceanic heat is released into the atmosphere, and that affects the ocean, which cools as the result of sea ice being formed, while on the other hand, how can I say it,  the atmosphere gets a source of energy that can drive atmospheric circulation. That’s where we are at the moment, scientifically preparing things somewhat and it’s a theme that will keep me occupied in the coming weeks.


blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #705 on: March 23, 2020, 05:28:00 PM »
Great work as always, Psymmo! :)

kassy

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #706 on: March 23, 2020, 05:42:24 PM »
Yes thx, much appreciated!
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

Alphabet Hotel

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #707 on: March 24, 2020, 12:14:48 PM »
https://www.meereisportal.de/en/mosaic/driftstories/driftstories-01-detective-work

DriftStories – 01: Detective work on ice that’s far too thin

How AWI sea-ice physicist Thomas Krumpen is tracing the fate of the MOSAiC ice floes back to their roots

gerontocrat

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #708 on: March 24, 2020, 12:27:48 PM »
Not seen anything recently from A-team, was wondering about the current position of the Polarstern, since there seems to be a strong flow out of the Fram it would seem that the expedition might leave the ice sooner than they expected?
A-Team had a kerfuffle on the covid thread?

Anybody got a good link for up to date reasonably accurate PolarStern location.
"I wasn't expecting that quite so soon" kiwichick16
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #709 on: March 24, 2020, 12:47:03 PM »
The web app has it, Gero.

https://follow.mosaic-expedition.org

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #710 on: March 24, 2020, 06:27:44 PM »
Quote
Your computer is now a portal to the North Pole: Explore one of the most remote, mysterious regions on Earth from the comfort of your own home with a new massive open online course (MOOC) featuring short lectures by researchers about their work, stunning footage from the icebreakers Polarstern and Akademik Fedorov, 360 videos and more. More than three dozen MOSAiC scientists and Arctic experts summarize the core of their research and explain what types of data they collect during the MOSAiC expedition. The Course is offered through the online course platform Coursera, and also viewable on YouTube. It is produced by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA.

Frozen in the Ice: Exploring the Arctic

Link >> https://www.coursera.org/learn/frozen-in-the-ice

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #711 on: March 24, 2020, 11:19:43 PM »
Anybody got a good link for up to date reasonably accurate PolarStern location.
mmtest files here have PS location to 2dp but are updated infrequently.

or there are nearby buoys
« Last Edit: March 24, 2020, 11:39:23 PM by uniquorn »

gerontocrat

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #712 on: March 26, 2020, 08:23:14 PM »
The web app has it, Gero.

https://follow.mosaic-expedition.org
Found lots of pretty maps but nowhere the Lat Long coordinates. Makes it a pain to plug it into Nullschool.

I used to bemoan how most of the world was losing the ability to do mathematics,
Then I used to bemoan how most of the world was losing the ability to do simple arithmetic,

But now for most of the world even numbers seem to be redundant.
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"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #713 on: March 26, 2020, 08:49:04 PM »
You asked for the location, mate. The location is there, just not the numbers. :P

psymmo7

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Re: MOSAiC news Lat and Long numbers
« Reply #714 on: March 26, 2020, 10:28:03 PM »
It's on the Mosaic website in the little daily report in the bottom right hand corner.
Sailwx also reports sporadically with the Polarstern callsign DBLK and when it does the values correspond.
You will also find it in the upper left hand corner of Polarstern position grapfic on the start page of the Uni Bremen Sea Ice webpage https://seaice.uni-bremen.de/start/(always gives position at 03.00 UTC).
I hope this helps

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #715 on: March 27, 2020, 06:10:42 PM »
Ohboiohboi! All scrambles...

Quote
Even after two weeks, the dynamics of our floe do not calm down. Our ice floe with initially a diameter of several kilometers is getting smaller and smaller as a consequence of natural forces. Tides in the ocean and strong winds in the atmosphere are pushing the floe. At the same time and due to the same forces, the leads around us give space when the ice is relaxing again. These ongoing dynamics keep our personal tensions up: How will the floe look like tomorrow morning? Can we work on the ice? Which installations on the ice might need to be rescued? Can we use the powerline between the ship and the ice floe? Over the last days, the latter was not always the case as the ship was simply moving too much. Also, small "island states" that are not accessible by foot have formed. However, using the helicopters on board, allows to continue our measurements in these outposts with limitations. The expedition name "MOSAiC" says it all!

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #716 on: March 28, 2020, 12:02:47 PM »
Drift speed up to 1.32km/h overnight

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #717 on: March 28, 2020, 09:13:30 PM »
Latest S1B (cffr) PS is white dot roughly centre, on the rift
« Last Edit: March 30, 2020, 09:29:28 PM by uniquorn »

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #718 on: March 29, 2020, 06:22:25 PM »
6 new buoys deployed! \o/

Thanks, Jennifer!

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #719 on: March 29, 2020, 08:01:33 PM »
Yes, 6 more Pbuoys (I think I can count 7, or maybe they are a different batch). Should give us a good idea of drift into the fram. Not much snow in that image.

Today's S1B showing how fractured the area further north east is. PS could be a lot worse off.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2020, 08:30:36 PM by uniquorn »

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #720 on: March 29, 2020, 09:19:25 PM »
There's a newish Rbuoy if anyone wants to analyse albedo

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #721 on: March 30, 2020, 01:47:43 AM »
Overview of Pbuoys (not P88) click to run, twice for full res - ctrtffr
« Last Edit: March 30, 2020, 01:55:21 AM by uniquorn »

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #722 on: March 30, 2020, 01:47:17 PM »
S1B from mar28 and mar30. PS getting sheared
85.3776N 13.1756 @ 08:40
« Last Edit: March 30, 2020, 01:55:06 PM by uniquorn »

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #723 on: April 02, 2020, 05:42:37 PM »
Transfixed by the glow of Arctic ice under starlight

Link >> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00918-4

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #724 on: April 04, 2020, 03:01:59 PM »
mar28-apr4. The ice would appear to be 'dynamic'
S1B_EW_GRDM_1SDH_20200328T121329_2479_N_1
S1B_EW_GRDM_1SDH_20200330T084049_2EF4_N_1
S1B_EW_GRDM_1SDH_20200403T080806_A9D4_N_1
S1B_EW_GRDM_1SDH_20200404T071043_9BF0_N_1
difficult to balance contrast, bow radar not updating

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #725 on: April 04, 2020, 07:18:24 PM »
There is one new frame of bow radar. -updated below
~450km to go
« Last Edit: April 05, 2020, 11:14:54 AM by uniquorn »

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #726 on: April 05, 2020, 11:19:27 AM »
PS doesn't appear to have frozen back in to the 'floe'. Bow radar is still rotating.
Note the temporary ridge in the middle of the refrozen lead.

psymmo7

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #727 on: April 05, 2020, 11:49:16 AM »
Sailwx is currently reporting Polarstern's position.
Position as of 09.00 84degrees 36 min N 13 deg 18min E with rapid eastward drift. Position at midnight was only 13 deg 6 min E.

https://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=DBLK

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #728 on: April 06, 2020, 01:58:45 PM »

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #729 on: April 06, 2020, 09:54:09 PM »
An estimate of sea ice thickness based on data from mosaic Thermistor Buoys , mar1-apr6 with a lot of help from SimonF92. We have also estimated snow thickness though identifying it accurately has proved problematic.
Full details of the methods attempted can be found here Comments on the methods or initial analysis of other mosaic buoy data are most welcome on that thread (please read it first).
click twice for full resolution

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #730 on: April 06, 2020, 11:02:28 PM »
Mosaic Rbuoy 2020R11, radiation buoy measuring incoming, reflected and transmitted. Currently north of Fram Strait. Could be interesting for someone stuck at home for the next few weeks.

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #731 on: April 07, 2020, 02:28:42 PM »
We missed the crossover into atlantification waters somewhere behind the salinity legend.
Nobody is looking posting.
100m and 75m salinity starts rising mid february, PS was travelling NW at the time.
50m salinity joins them later in feb, Will have to check 20m sometime.
Not all sensors are active


Mosaic Obuoys
« Last Edit: April 08, 2020, 10:28:42 PM by uniquorn »

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #732 on: April 08, 2020, 12:39:41 PM »
drift update and ship movement summary
« Last Edit: April 08, 2020, 01:31:34 PM by uniquorn »

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #733 on: April 10, 2020, 11:16:32 AM »
Very cool 360˚photos here:

Link >> https://poly.google.com/view/beIkmpdxevd

Niall Dollard

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #734 on: April 19, 2020, 06:11:43 PM »
Current temperature from the Polarstern Vessel has almost reached 0 C

Niall Dollard

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #735 on: April 21, 2020, 01:46:29 PM »
And what would it sound like ?

Something like this :  :)


oren

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #736 on: April 21, 2020, 02:19:32 PM »
To all, please respect the wishes of those reporting in this very important thread, and avoid veering OT even for short detours.

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #737 on: April 24, 2020, 01:44:26 PM »
Alternative resupply plan for Polarstern now in place

Quote
Thanks to the support of the German research vessels Merian and Sonne, the MOSAiC expedition will continue, despite the coronavirus pandemic. The new MOSAiC team will start in May.

Link >> https://www.awi.de/en/about-us/service/press/press-release/alternative-resupply-plan-for-polarstern-now-in-place.html

psymmo7

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #738 on: April 27, 2020, 11:45:00 PM »
Here's an English language transcript of the Audiologbook of the Polarstern from the MOSAiC expedition website that is otherwise only available in German. It was posted last Thursday (23. April). In the meantime we know that  the Polarstern is going to move from its current floe to go to Svalbard to meet 2 German  support vessels to get supplies and to change the scientific personnel. Whether it will return to the position it had left or reposition itself on another floe further North still hadn't been decided at the time of making this post.

MOSAIC_AUDIOLOGBOOK15

Commentator:  The crew of the third leg of the MOSAiC Expedition directed  by Expedition leader Thorsten Kanzow has now been on the icebreaker Polarstern for more than a month and a half. In the meantime, polar day prevails: the sun doesn’t disappear behind the horizon anymore and makes the work of the scientists a little more pleasant. At the same time, the ice is, as before, always in motion resulting in continual changes.

Thorsten Kanzow: One thing that I find very impressive is, I‘m searching for a word, is the dynamic change that one sees here on the floe. What I’m trying to express is what one experiences when one goes to the bridge in the morning and sees how pieces of the floe or the cities or other markers on the ice have shifted and moved in relation to each other.  What we now realise is that it’s often the same leads that open and close again and again, the same fracture lines that exist in the ice so that such a large stable vessel like the Polarstern is unable to withstand the forces at work to keep itself stably positioned in the ice, and we experience these forces at first hand. I find that very, very striking. This observation may not be the result of a single experiment or from one particular group, but its something that affects all the groups in the course of their daily work.

Commentator: The continual movement of the ice makes the scientific work on the floe difficult. Some areas of the camp can temporarily only be reached with difficulty or may even be totally cut off. This results in experiments having to be set up all over again and limits the measurements that can carried out. 

Thorsten Kanzow: So, the MOSAiC floe has experienced several changes. When we arrived here it was very, very cold. It was also dark most of the time and the floe was, for the most part, intact. That meant that we were able to get to all the scientific monitoring stations and the automated monitoring in the various cities was going well. Then came a phase from circa the 11th of March onward when there was a lot of ice movement and an increased number of leads  opened up in the ice and then closed up again resulting in ice ridges piling up where they joined up again. This led to us often having to cut the electrical power supply to the monitoring stations that we could not reach, or could  only reach with difficulty. And I think we suffered  substantially during this period. During the last week or two the situation here on the floe has become very quiet or at least quieter. The ice has compacted considerably and that means that many of the activities that were either partially stopped, or that had to stopped completely, have been restarted. Some of the monitoring stations have been reconstructed or reconfigured and located nearer to the ship. But I would say that, in principle, at the moment we are gathering a lot of data.

Commentator: The scientists are able to react very flexibly to these changes. They have been able to make use of the situation and gather data about it from various different scientific angles. For example, it was possible for them to gather a lot of data about lead opening and ice ridge formation. 

Thorsten Kanzow: We have, of course, invested a lot of time and effort into investigating these changes, in particular into the opening of leads. Indeed, the phenomena of lead opening and the subsequent piling up of ice to form ice ridges are connected. We have worked a lot on this phenomenon, not only from the aspect of sea ice but also from an atmospheric and oceanographic perspective. That has been one focus of the change in the science.  A second change is related to the fact that we have daylight back again: there is sunlight all day and the sun does not set. For instance, one consequence of this is that  a number of chemical processes in the atmosphere change and that a number of important biological processes that take place in the floe have begun. Scientifically speaking, those are two big changes we have experienced on the floe.

Commentator: Other than originally planned, the drift of the ship and the floe have clearly shifted further in a southerly direction. This will affect the scientific work, because among other  factors the water in this region has different properties.

Thorsten Kanzow: For example, when we look at the ocean then we find ourselves moving through  another body of water either than when the expedition started or at the beginning of our leg of the expedition. We are now in so-called Atlantic water. This is a very, very salt-laden body of water. That means that simply as a result of the Atlantic influx, the water with which the floe  makes contact has become much more salty. That in turn has an effect on  the biology of the floe, on the supply of nutrients. In addition, and one has to speculate a little here, the speed with which we have advanced southwards  is coupled to the risk that we could possibly enter a zone in which the ice will break up still further. A zone in which we could get very, very strong lead formation and that would then alter and limit the work we do, but could also possibly present us with new opportunities.

Commentator: After completing many arduous tasks during the last few weeks,  the scientists now have a little more time for social contact on the ship. It is not always that easy to find the right balance between work and private life.
 
Thorsten Kanzow: I think that we were able to get to know one another very well on the journey here on the Dranitsyn from Tromsø to the ice floe. That was, of course, a period in which we were not so immersed in work. Then came a period during which we had to work extremely hard and social life had to take a backseat. But I think that, at the moment, its recovering. For example, over Easter we did a lot of things together. We had an evening gathering on the ice with the Easter fire in little bowls and on Easter Sunday we had a barbecue with a party afterwards party on the ice. Those are proper events and just this very minute, as we are speaking, a football match is taking place on the ice. This means that one can  see that social activities are recovering. Activities are also offered that involve both scientists and crew, such as regular excursions on the ice, but there are also activities that take place on board like table tennis tournaments and things like that.

Commentator: The polar day that has meanwhile arrived also contributes to the wellbeing of all on board.

Thorsten Kanzow: I’ve already been in the arctic in summer. That means a lot of light and that the light doesn’t  go away, because it is light twenty-four hours a day, even at midnight. That I have already experienced. The alternative scenario was not something I was familiar with. This means that the complete darkness that we experienced on the Dranitsyn, was the first time I was able to experience it so intensely. I must say that I much prefer the scenario with light to the one without. I think it is quite easy to retire in the evening and to be able to darken your room, but to have to go completely without light I don’t find at all pleasant.

Commentator: Acoustically one is continually made aware dynamic nature of the ice surrounding the Polarstern: time and again the pressure of the ice makes the ship vibrate  and that impresses even the most experienced  scientists.

Thorsten Kanzow: These noises are connected with the movements of the ship. When they occur I am always gripped by a  slight fear and I go to the bridge to see how our power lines are faring - the lines that go from the ship onto the floe and then to the various places where power is needed all the time. And the other priority that I feel I must control, because of the safety aspect,  is whether the gangway is still securely positioned at the place where the scientific personnel go onto the ice or come back from it. Otherwise I have to say that it’s a crazy phenomenon, to be able to experience how the ice ridges pile up to the stern of the ship and tear out the ice anchor  and break cables as their formation progresses. I must say it’s rather impressive.

Commentator: The changes in the ice and especially these consequences of the ice movements are not predictable. Should the temperature rise further in the next few days and weeks as a result of persistent warm air, then further impacts on scientific work are to be expected.

Thorsten Kanzow: If it [the warm air] is an occurrence that only lasts for a few days and then everything returns to normal, then I think big changes will only come later. But, at the moment, we don’t know whether we will experience this rebound within the next four or five days so we can’t plan ahead. And what if that does not happen? We still have southerly winds, that means winds that are bringing warm air masses here. I think that if this warm air occurrence caries  on for one or two weeks then this is going to have a lot of consequences for the science, for the biosphere and for the properties of the sea ice, possibly even on the heat uptake by the ocean and so on. This means that the processes that connect the ocean, the ice and the atmosphere would all change and if that carries on for long  it will result in large scale consequences.

Commentator: Are there any wishes both from both a scientific and a personal perspective for the remaining weeks that the team of the third leg is going stay on the Polarstern?

Thorsten Kanzow: from a scientific perspective, I hope that that now that we have managed to get lots of things running that were temporarily experiencing difficulties, I really hope that we will be able to maintain this status for the next two or three weeks. But since the science is also changing, I hope that the teams will also be able to record all the changes too, because after all that’s what we are here for. We didn’t come here only at a particular time of year with a certain general weather situation because we wanted to investigate a single season, rather we wanted to follow  the transitions between the different seasons. That means that the science that one does has to change too. However, with limited manpower and with the teams working to nearly full capacity on the scientific tasks they have already set themselves that is difficult to achieve. However, the teams are working very, very strongly together with the experts at their home bases to find the right balance between continuing existing programmes and trying to answer new scientific questions and  setting up new experiments. And that, from a scientific perspective,  is my biggest wish: that they will succeed.  As expedition leader I naturally also want the scientists to be cheerful and content and to get on well with each other, as indeed they have so far. From a personal perspective, I want to continue to hear good news from home.



SimonF92

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #739 on: April 28, 2020, 12:07:18 PM »
Big and sustained uptick in all Buoy air-temps recently
Bunch of small python Arctic Apps:
https://github.com/SimonF92/Arctic

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #740 on: April 28, 2020, 03:21:21 PM »
Most Thermistor buoys are showing a slow down in ice thickening as temperatures have risen. click to run SimonF92's animation above.
T72 is discussed here
T62 is also showing a small reduction in thickness. The animation below shows temperatures from apr1-28, looking at near surface temperatures, the temperature gradient from surface to ocean and near ocean temperatures. Bottom freezing continues through most of april, surface activity is more difficult to interpret.
The second animation is a drift update using p201, p204 and p207. Retracing north east with the southerly winds.

Interesting Fomo yesterday suggesting vertical mixing in the upper 70m of the ocean due to strong winds. Guessing this is turbulence from ice keels since the wind has little direct access to the ocean.
« Last Edit: April 28, 2020, 06:12:05 PM by uniquorn »

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #741 on: April 28, 2020, 06:40:44 PM »
Following up on vertical mixing, here we look at whoi itp94 which is within the mosaic buoy array, last position reported yesterday at 84.0238° N, 16.527° E. On the left are temperature and salinity from 7m-70m, on the right from 7-200m, both from oct2019 to apr26, the last full profile to 200m.
I'm not sure how the charts relate to any recent weather mentioned by the fomo diary entry but it's easy to see a more atlantic profile developing over time
« Last Edit: April 28, 2020, 06:58:03 PM by uniquorn »

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #742 on: April 28, 2020, 06:57:49 PM »
Oh noes! :(

Coronavirus shutdown forces research ship to break out of Arctic ice

Quote
MOSAiC mission will return to its frozen-in platform, but disruption caused by team changeover will create a gap in its unique climate data set.

When scientists were planning MOSAiC — an epic research expedition that would remain trapped in Arctic sea ice for one year — they considered the North Pole’s hazards. They worried about hypothermia, isolation, crushing ice and polar bears. They had dozens of contingency plans. But no one anticipated a pandemic.

The travel restrictions and flight cancellations imposed because of the coronavirus outbreak have now forced mission planners to make a seemingly impossible decision. Polarstern, the German research vessel central to the expedition, will temporarily leave its position in the ice to exchange its crew, and so will be forced to abandon the research camp where it has been frozen since October.

The disruption is a blow to the mission’s researchers, who have created a unique platform from which to study climate change in the Arctic, with a data due to be collected continuously over an entire year. Although they hope to refreeze the ship at the same camp after a three-week pause, the interruption will leave a hefty gap in the data set — and potentially miss a crucial time for data collection as Arctic ice begins its springtime melt.

“Ideally, we would not leave the ice — but given all the circumstances, I think it’s amazing we were able to come up with a solution to continue the experiment,” says Donald Perovich, a geophysicist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and a member of MOSAiC’s project board.

Close quarters
The news will come as a relief to the scientists and crew who have had to grapple with the uncertainty of having no return date. The travel stoppages have left the crew stranded since early April, when flights in and out of the Norwegian islands of Svalbard were meant to have swapped the ship’s researchers. “That put them in a much more difficult place psychologically,” says Allison Fong, a polar biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, and a co-leader of MOSAiC’s ecosystem team.

So MOSAiC coordinators have been working tirelessly to find an alternative plan. But because the coronavirus pandemic has forced airports, military facilities and seaports worldwide to shut down, it has not been easy. The only solution requires Polarstern to fire its engines, break free from the ice and travel to a fjord in Svalbard. There, it will rendezvous with two other ships to swap scientists before returning to the Arctic research camp in roughly three weeks. (That timeline could change depending on the weather and ice conditions.)

...


Forgot to add the link >> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01253-4

It's also in the NYT now >> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/climate/arctic-mosaic-expedition-coronavirus.html
« Last Edit: April 28, 2020, 08:15:32 PM by blumenkraft »

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #743 on: April 30, 2020, 11:04:52 AM »
How a record strong Arctic weather pattern aided a troubled Arctic research expedition

Link >> https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/04/29/how-record-strong-polar-vortex-assisted-troubled-arctic-research-expedition/

(paywalled, so click to read the screenshot)

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #744 on: April 30, 2020, 11:26:03 AM »
drift update showing north-east Svalbard. click twice for full resolution.
Recent radar animations have shown the ice surrounding PS to be quite malleable up until yesterday.

S1B this morning, PS is white dot at centre
PS location from awi uni-bremen
« Last Edit: April 30, 2020, 01:05:43 PM by uniquorn »

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #745 on: April 30, 2020, 03:45:13 PM »
A large animation of S1B images showing PS and surrounding area from apr28-30. The fracture shown in the bow radar above is not visible at 0751 yesterday but is open by 0929 (3rd frame).
A much larger lead has opened up to the west, probably easing the tension in the mosaic area.
click twice for full resolution

the same area today from worldview aqua modis. (medium contrast). The distinctive opening in the lead makes it easy to identify today.(probably freshly refrozen)
https://go.nasa.gov/2WeLvLL

I missed the bigger crack ~4km to the west on the the bow radar.
« Last Edit: April 30, 2020, 08:58:14 PM by uniquorn »

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #746 on: April 30, 2020, 08:40:41 PM »
“MOSAiC is an amazing opportunity to test exciting hypotheses”

Link >> https://polar.se/en/news/mosaic-is-an-amazing-opportunity-to-test-exciting-hypotheses/

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #747 on: May 02, 2020, 08:39:53 PM »
Perhaps someone would be interested in a daily check on 2020R11 and 2020R12 and let us know when albedo drops.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo
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Albedo (/ælˈbiːdoʊ/) (Latin: albedo, meaning 'whiteness') is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation.

blumenkraft

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #748 on: May 02, 2020, 08:55:35 PM »
On it!  :)

uniquorn

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Re: MOSAiC news
« Reply #749 on: May 04, 2020, 08:33:11 PM »
bow radar and drift update
drift title is wrong, they are Pbuoys
added https://go.nasa.gov/2L1Hnd8 apr29-may4
« Last Edit: May 04, 2020, 09:38:37 PM by uniquorn »