The Catlin team has been on the ice for 10 days, and has traveled a total of 17 miles so far as the crow flies. At that rate, they will reach the North Pole in September, except that the ice gets too dangerous by early May and they will have to evacuate. Their current position is 85 47 N 78 22 W, after starting at 85 32 N 77 44 W on March 15. Their web site uses a cool Google earth plugin to map their tortuous route – seen below.
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/GoogleEarth.aspx
The Google Earth map below shows how far they have traveled in reference to the North Pole. Note that their starting point and current position are almost right on top of each other at that scale.
The team have been making lots of noise about how unusual the ice conditions are in the Arctic, based on the tiny fraction of the Arctic they have navigated.
“The conditions we’re experiencing are unlike anything I’ve seen in any of the nineteen expeditions I’ve previously been on,” says Martin Hartley. “There are great swathes of only recently refrozen open water peppered with small snow-covered islands of ice in the distance. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come for Arctic travel?”
The map below shows just how insignificant their coverage has been. Their starting and end points appear to be right on top of each other at Arctic scale.
The Arctic Ocean covers 5,427,000 square miles. Catlin 2010 has seen maybe ten square miles of it, meaning they have sampled less than 0.0002% of the ice. They also choose to travel on refrozen leads because they are flatter and smoother, so their sampling is not random. No serious scientist would attempt to draw any conclusions about the quality of the ice based on a cherry picked sample representing less than 0.0002% of the Arctic, but this is no ordinary scientific expedition.
Same story, different year. From 2009 : Can the Catlin Arctic Survey Team Cover 683 km in the Next 21 Days?
Catlin Team Averaging 1.7 Miles Per Day – Only 295 Miles Left to Go!
The Catlin team has been on the ice for 10 days, and has traveled a total of 17 miles so far as the crow flies. At that rate, they will reach the North Pole in September, except that the ice gets too dangerous by early May and they will have to evacuate. Their current position is 85 47 N 78 22 W, after starting at 85 32 N 77 44 W on March 15. Their web site uses a cool Google earth plugin to map their tortuous route – seen below.
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/GoogleEarth.aspx
The Google Earth map below shows how far they have traveled in reference to the North Pole. Note that their starting point and current position are almost right on top of each other at that scale.
The team have been making lots of noise about how unusual the ice conditions are in the Arctic, based on the tiny fraction of the Arctic they have navigated.
“The conditions we’re experiencing are unlike anything I’ve seen in any of the nineteen expeditions I’ve previously been on,” says Martin Hartley. “There are great swathes of only recently refrozen open water peppered with small snow-covered islands of ice in the distance. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come for Arctic travel?”
The map below shows just how insignificant their coverage has been. Their starting and end points appear to be right on top of each other at Arctic scale.
The Arctic Ocean covers 5,427,000 square miles. Catlin 2010 has seen maybe ten square miles of it, meaning they have sampled less than 0.00002% of the ice. They also choose to travel on refrozen leads because they are flatter and smoother, so their sampling is not random. No serious scientist would attempt to draw any conclusions about the quality of the ice based on a cherry picked sample representing less than 0.00002% of the Arctic, but this is no ordinary scientific expedition.
Same story, different year. From 2009 : Can the Catlin Arctic Survey Team Cover 683 km in the Next 21 Days?
””’Steve Oregon (13:27:05) : Under your logic, would expedition also not be foolhearty because of the grand traditon of expeditions, per se?”””’
Steve,
There have been many expeditions to many places on earth in the past 200 yrs in the grand expedition style. Of course, including ones to the North Pole. Great stuff.
Although I disagree with the Catlin group’s political/social/climatological motivations plus I find it a silly media ploy, and although they sound rather unprofessional in their approach to their expedition, I do admire people who do expeditions like the one they are on.
I envy them.
John
Cryosphere Today has these images for today and two years ago. None are available for this time last year (alas). They show that the area where the Catlin bunch find themselves was 100% two years age and 100% now. Not only that, but you may notice that rich, deep purple over most of the 2010 picture in contrast to the more faded look of 2008, indicating 80% or less in large areas now @100%.
http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=03&fd=28&fy=2008&sm=03&sd=28&sy=2010
I’m just sayin…
Why does the film Groundhog Day spring int my head?
Perhaps we should stop referring to this fiasco as the Catlin Arctic Survey and use it’s proper name of “Carry on up the Arctic”
Should of just gone to the BBC and asked them about Top Gears drive there would of been quicker, saved money and i’m sure there was lots of footage of the ‘right kind of ice’.
60 km now (as the crow flies), albeit into a direction that will miss the pole. What they’re doing is like crawling sideways on a slow treadmill.
Note to self: if you’re on a drifting surface, try to be significantly faster than the drift.
John Whitman (17:53:06) :
Although I disagree with the Catlin group’s political/social/climatological motivations plus I find it a silly media ploy, and although they sound rather unprofessional in their approach to their expedition, I do admire people who do expeditions like the one they are on.
I think the term “expedition” is rather overblown with regards to this jaunt onto the ice. I could accomplish the same thing they’re attempting to do during an afternoon sprint into the Atlantic — at less expense and with less danger to my associates, and still have time to justify the trip by catching some bluefish for dinner.
Well, from that position, they hooked southwest for a bit and are now travelling northwest — present position is listed as 85°56’27.99″N by 80°43’09.70″W.
Only 245.79 nautical miles to go….
Or 282.85 statute miles…
Or 455.20 kilometers…
David Ball (12:43:26) :
Phil. , why don’t you get real and admit this is a fool hardy waste of resources and time, and as far as sampling and experimentation goes, beyond the ridiculous. Purely PR at it’s worst.
When have I said otherwise? If someone wants to spend their time and money hiking around over the Arctic sea ice best of luck to them. Similarly if someone wants to climb Everest etc., why do you care?
The climate is not doing anything unusual and you know it. 25 years we have been told we are going to burn up. Where is it? When is it? Can you guys just grow some stones and admit that you are wrong. Then we can move on to solving real problems like providing reasonably priced energy to all the people of the world. CAGW has wasted enough precious time and resources.
You’re entitled to your opinion even when it extends to misrepresentation of the science. I prefer to stick to the science not politics.
Global warming activist and reporter freeze to death in Antarctica.
http://www.ecoenquirer.com/south-pole-tragedy.htm
“When have I said otherwise? If someone wants to spend their time and money hiking around over the Arctic sea ice best of luck to them. Similarly if someone wants to climb Everest etc., why do you care?”
Why do I care?
Why do I care!?
Why do I care!!??!!!?
I care because I don’t think they are using money–they are using money that might have a more useful use available, like, for example, compost in somebody’s Victory Garden.
And worse yet, they are littering the Arctic with barrels of fuel and oil (and God knows what else) that will take eons to recover from.
And don’t even get me started on the press coverage and the rest of that rot.
Rachelle Young (12:49:22) :
Global warming activist and reporter freeze to death in Antarctica.
http://www.ecoenquirer.com/south-pole-tragedy.htm
I think you’ve been had Rachelle, the pilot Jimmy Dolittle!
One wonders why they weren’t missed for 8 months?
REPLY: As I indicated on the “tips and notes” thread, this story is a hoax perpetrated by the “eco enquirer”. Ignore it. – Anthony
Larry Sheldon (13:14:16) :
“When have I said otherwise? If someone wants to spend their time and money hiking around over the Arctic sea ice best of luck to them. Similarly if someone wants to climb Everest etc., why do you care?”
Why do I care?
Why do I care!?
Why do I care!!??!!!?
I care because I don’t think they are using money–they are using money that might have a more useful use available, like, for example, compost in somebody’s Victory Garden.
It’s their money.
And worse yet, they are littering the Arctic with barrels of fuel and oil (and God knows what else) that will take eons to recover from.
They aren’t.
Sorry. I posted the link to the report that the global warming activists in Antarctica froze to death. I am now seeing other sites reporting that this as a spoof. It’s hard to tell when it is first posted and, somehow, this was so believable. People are toying with fate on expeditions of this type and nobody will be very surprised if something bad does happen sooner or later. Again, I apologize for the link to the misleading report.
Phil. (09:33:01) :” You’re entitled to your opinion even when it extends to misrepresentation of the science. I prefer to stick to the science not politics”. How is it that I am “misrepresenting the science” and you are not? How is my statement political and yours is not? A very weak rebuttal at best. When did you say that the warming was going to “runaway”? What was the cause of this runaway warming? I’m afraid that your attempt at dismissal was dismal. Gimme some of that high fallootin’ “science” you’re going on about. Show me how Co2 drives the climate. I guess it is political when I say that I do not know what drives the climate, but I know it is NOT Co2. There have been a lot of “scientist” in the past who turned out to be wrong. That still happens, you know. It is happening right now. But I suppose I am just being political. By the way, I am sad that the battle became political. It was NOT the skeptics who initiated that, just so you know.
At the other end of the globe…
Global Warming Activist Freezes to Death in Antarctica
Famed global warming activist James Schneider and a journalist friend were both found frozen to death on Saturday, about 90 miles from South Pole Station, by the pilot of a ski plane practicing emergency evacuation procedures.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing”, recounted the pilot, Jimmy Dolittle. “There were two snowmobiles with cargo sleds, a tent, and a bright orange rope that had been laid out on the ice, forming the words, ‘HELP-COLD’.”
http://www.ecoenquirer.com/south-pole-tragedy.htm
REPLY: This is a HOAX, ignore it. – Anthony
Does it seem to anybody else that if we needed a single deifining word for all of this, the word would be “Hoax”.
How far science has fallen!
Lovely discussion today about landing a 29,000lb airplane on the disappearing sea ice for resupply. Apparently not so rotten after all.
hmmm?????
from The Guardian
Posted by
Ann Daniels Wednesday 31 March 2010 07.30 BST
“We’ve also been seeing vast areas of open water and very thin ice – it’s the first time any of us have experienced anything quite like this on such a large scale. The way the ice is behaving is simply the strangest we have ever seen. We’ve spent days on ice that was bending, bouncing and wobbling as we passed over it….”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/mar/31/catlin-arctic-survey-melting-ice
this is some of what they see, only this is much faster !lol
http://www.history.com/shows/ice-road-truckers/videos/ice-road-truckers-2-ice-road-oddities#ice-road-truckers-2-ice-road-oddities