From the “ship of fools” department and the UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND – INNER SPACE CENTRE
Scientists, students to make first live, interactive broadcasts from Arctic Ocean’s Northwest Passage
Expedition in August/September seeks to increase understanding about changing Arctic frontier; For citizen scientists, teachers, students, and the public worldwide: First interactive events from Northwest Passage, via Facebook Live
The Arctic Ocean, with its vast icy islands and peninsulas, was once known as terra incognita – the unknown land – the planet’s last great un-navigated maritime frontier.
This summer, a team of scientists and students, conducting research aboard One Ocean Expeditions’ vessel Akademik Ioffe, will offer select museums, as well as classrooms and citizen scientists worldwide, an opportunity to explore with them in real time a dramatically changing Arctic Ocean, and to discuss their research in the first-ever live, interactive broadcasts from the fabled Northwest Passage.
From August 23 to Sept. 13, the University of Rhode Island’s Inner Space Center (ISC), with major funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and additional support from the Heising-Simons Foundation, will conduct the innovative Northwest Passage Project research expedition with a team of natural and social scientists, students, and a professional film crew. This ground-breaking opportunity is also supported by One Ocean Expeditions as a key marine partner, having operated in Arctic waters for over 20 years.
Research to aid understanding of / document climate change effects
Aboard the Akademik Ioffe, the team will collect water, ice, and air samples to advance understanding of and document the effect climate change is having on the environment and biodiversity in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
The project will help fill significant gaps in critical scientific data about the region, using of a suite of oceanographic instruments throughout the ship’s 22-day transit.
The expedition’s chief scientist, Dr. Brice Loose of the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, is coordinating and leading the research into the exchange of greenhouse gases between the water and atmosphere, and changes in distribution and abundance of two vulnerable levels of the Arctic food web – plankton and seabirds.
The project’s four scientific research areas are further detailed in an appendix below.
A suite of high-tech tools: 1st autonomous underwater glider flight to collect information in NW Passage water column
Plans include deployment of the Slocum Glider, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), to be retrieved after sampling the waters of eastern Lancaster Sound – a critical choke point in the Northwest Passage between the Beaufort Sea and Baffin Bay.
Freshwater export from the Arctic can have dramatic impacts on ocean circulation inside the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, as well as globally when it discharges into the North Atlantic Ocean.
Led by Donglai Gong of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the AUV team will be the first to fly an underwater glider collecting water column information inside the Northwest Passage.
Named Amelia (after aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart), the glider’s sensors will collect valuable information about increased freshwater storage and transport from the upper Arctic Ocean.
The glider will be deployed for more than 10 days and will focus on water column measurement of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a fluorescence, colored-dissolved organic matter fluorescence, and optical backscattering (the reflection of waves, particles, or signals back to the direction from which they came). This suite of measurements will provide a high resolution view of the Lancaster Sound currents, water masses, and primary biology.
NW Passage geopolitics, and how climate change affects indigenous populations
The project will also contribute to understanding of the maritime history of the Northwest Passage, the role of the Inuit people in Arctic history, the effects of climate change on indigenous populations, and the geopolitics of a waterway confronted with threats from resource extraction, increased shipping commerce, and pollution.
Engaging students and the public
A group of 22 undergraduates, graduate students, and post-doctoral researchers from the U.S. and Canada will join the scientists. In addition, six teams of high school teachers and students (total 18) will be in residence in the ISC’s mission control facility during the first week of the expedition and interact directly with the participants at sea.
The expedition team will engage a wide public audience through an extensive and unprecedented Internet presence from the area, including Facebook Live broadcasts from sea. Special interactive broadcasts will be beamed via the Inner Space Center (ISC), the U.S. facility that supports ocean exploration and education, to three prestigious science museums across the country – the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, the Exploratorium, San Francisco CA, and the Alaska SeaLife Center, Seward AK.
Information and details on the project’s other general public events via Facebook Live and daily highlight videos will be available at http://www.
A two-hour, ultra-high 4K definition television documentary by the onboard film company David Clark, Inc. will air in 2019.
“It is important for people everywhere on Earth to understand how this region affects all citizens. The region’s meltwater, water circulation, and flux of greenhouse gases between the ocean and the atmosphere are impacting wide-scale environmental and climatic changes, including how these changes affect people and wildlife diversity,” says NPP principal investigator and project director Gail Scowcroft.
“The project’s natural and social scientists will engage a group of university students in hands-on research, as the team addresses important research questions. In addition, diverse audiences will be reached through real-time interactions from sea, a two-hour documentary, and related events. The NPP will provide a visually stunning and historically poignant platform from which diverse audiences will experience this innovative expedition.”
The Akademik Ioffe
The project will take place onboard Akademik Ioffe with One Ocean Expeditions, a world leading expedition cruise operator whose core mandates include ocean health, science, and education as part of it’s educational programming, while offering immersive experiences for passengers.
The 364-foot Akademik Ioffe is equipped with multiple laboratories, cranes, a “moon pool” shaft through the hull for lowering and raising equipment, and a full suite of oceanographic research tools.
The ship will depart Resolute Bay on August 23, travel south and west to Cambridge Bay via Bellot Strait, then return to Lancaster Sound and Pond Inlet, before travelling down the east side of Baffin Island, with many stops along the way. The expedition will end in Iqaluit on September 13, 2018.
On the 22-day journey, students will participate in hands-on research with onboard scientists, and make shore visits, including to wildlife and research sites.
Scientific research areas
The physics of Arctic ocean circulation: Transpolar water drift through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA)
Scientists will investigate the increased freshwater storage and export from the upper Arctic ocean due to a warming Arctic. As ice melting occurs, increased freshwater is accumulating in the Arctic, resulting in a large freshwater anomaly.
Freshwater inputs can have dramatic impacts on ocean circulation, particularly when freshwater is discharged into the North Atlantic Ocean from the Arctic. The CAA, and particularly Northwest Passage, is one of the principal conduits for freshwater transport from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic.
There is uncertainty about the magnitude of the flow of water through the various restricted outlets from the Arctic to the Atlantic. One of the pathways for this freshwater transport can be found in the Northwest Passage, where the Northwest Passage Project expedition will take place.
Chemistry of the melting Arctic and marginal seas: Water column chemistry affecting greenhouse gas fluxes
The concentration and isotopic composition of methane and carbon dioxide in the Arctic Ocean and atmosphere are of great interest, as both are greenhouse gases and the sources and flux of both between the ocean and atmosphere are important components of the global climate system.
The Arctic Ocean generally absorbs carbon dioxide, but ice cover limits air-sea exchange. Measuring carbon dioxide and its isotopic composition can provide information about the carbon system’s sources and fluxes into the atmosphere.
Methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, is found throughout the Arctic Circle, and the Arctic appears to be an ever growing source of methane to the atmosphere. Methane is found in land-based permafrost and as methane ice or methane hydrates, which are distributed along the seafloor.
With less sea ice cover, there can be an increased flux of methane into the atmosphere from the ocean. However, some microbes in ocean water use methane as a food source. If microbial breakdown of methane is rapid enough, it may serve to offset the methane that escapes to the atmosphere. There is little data to provide estimates of this methane breakdown in Arctic water. The Northwest Passage Project will study this microbial breakdown of methane and the rate at which it occurs in the Northwest Passage region.
Ecosystem surveys of Arctic habitats in transition: Distribution and abundance of zooplankton and phytoplankton
As the waters of the Arctic warm and the sea ice cover decreases, the Arctic surface ocean ecosystem is anticipated to undergo considerable changes. Habitats are changing and moving, perhaps disappearing, and species distribution and abundance also may be changing rapidly.
To observe phytoplankton and zooplankton, the Northwest Passage Project will periodically conduct plankton net tows in the upper water column (100m and less). The contents of the nets will be catalogued. The organisms collected in these net tows will be counted with a laboratory bench-top Flowcam.
The Flowcam counts and images micrometer size particles using an imaging microscope. This provides the ability to identify and quantify ‘particles’ from some sampled volume. These particles can be sediments, phytoplankton, or even zooplankton. This imaging system will generate a library of images for each run and store them for processing later.
Ecosystem surveys of Arctic habitats in transition: Distribution and abundance of seabirds
In addition to the water column studies, there will be surveys of marine birds for the duration of the expedition. As top predators of marine food webs, seabirds play an important role in marine ecosystems. Colonies of international importance are found in this region and their abundance and distribution at sea can be used to monitor changes and variability. The Northwest Passage Project cruise will use a standard method to perform seabird counts and contribute to the seabird survey database of the Canadian Wildlife Service used to monitor the status of marine birds in Canada.
URI Inner Space Centre’s advanced telepresence technology
Live interactive broadcasts throughout the expedition will use the ISC’s advanced telepresence technology and video production facility. Pre-expedition webinars, archived online for public viewing, will prepare the students for their research experiences.
The ISC will also produce daily video blasts using footage supplied by the onboard filmmakers. These video blasts will be used during broadcasts and live interactions with partner sites. They will also be available on the ISC’s YouTube channel.
The ISC will receive a live satellite link from the ship and connect it to the partner sites, allowing audiences to communicate with the shipboard scientists and students. The pre-produced video segments will be made available to the partner institutions for use in their other educational activities, and will also be made available on the project website.
Since the Arctic is an extreme environment and at any time during the expedition may experience weather that disrupts the satellite signal, these highlight videos will allow the ISC to conduct an interactive program with the partner institutions without the live interaction from sea, if necessary.
Frozen Obsession: A two-hour television documentary by Emmy-winning director David Clark
Emmy Award-winning director David Clark will produce and direct a two-hour television documentary, Frozen Obsession, which will explore the changing Arctic by documenting the NPP expedition. The film will highlight the expedition’s research and document the activities of the diverse group of participants (scientists, historians, journalists, educators, and students) and their various experiences.
The documentary will also explore the maritime history of the Northwest Passage, the role of the indigenous Inuit people in the Arctic’s history and changes affecting their way of life, and the geopolitics of this Arctic waterway (more information: http://www.
Special screening events will take place at each of the NPP partner institutions, at Penn State’s Polar Center, and at the Environmental Film Festival. The film will have a television broadcast and also be available for future theatrical distribution. The program will be combined with online/social media, community outreach, and youth activities. The project’s participants will host screenings of the documentary in their schools and institutions.
Award-winning author and journalist Ed Struzik, who has written about the Arctic for three decades, will be onboard to share his perspective on critical wildlife issues, the native Inuit culture, impacts of climate change, and prospects of Arctic resource extraction and commercial shipping traffic in the Passage.
###
Project Partners:
Lead Institution:
University of Rhode Island: http://www.
Graduate School of Oceanography: web.uri.edu/gso
Inner Space Center: web.uri.edu/gso/inner-space-center
David Clark Inc. http://www.
One Ocean Expeditions: http://www.
U.S. Minority Serving Institutions:
California State University Channel Islands: http://www.
City College of New York: http://www.
Florida International University: http://www.
Virginia Commonwealth University: http://www.
University of Illinois at Chicago: http://www.
Alaska Sea Life Center: http://www.
Exploratorium: http://www.
Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History: https:/
Virginia Institute of Marine Science / William and Mary: http://www.
Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada: https:/
Climate Change Education Partnership Alliance: http://ccepalliance.
Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement: http://www.
Penn State: http://www.
Climate Central: http://www.
People, Places, and Design Research: http://ppdresearch.
Interface Guru: https:/
So Climate Central is involved… maybe it’s time for WUWT to sponsor a cruise!0
How about a conference in Bali?
Please tell me that Pen Hadow will be on board
I think Ed Struzik is Canada’s Pen Hadow.
This gives a clue as to where he’s coming from:
” Ed Struzik … was a finalist for the Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment.”
So this is one of those Orwellian titles, where “…Excellence…” and Truthfulness are mutually exclusive.
“an opportunity to explore with them in real time a dramatically changing Arctic Ocean”
This implies that the arctic will change dramatically during the time of this cruise. Or maybe they will observe the Arctic going through dramatic change as it does every year and all the time. There is NO month, week, day where the vast expanse of ocean ice is not either expanding or contracting and although the max and min extent is less that 30 years ago the amount of water that freezes and then melts is still around 10,000,000 sq km.
“Named Amelia (after aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart),”
Let’s hope the glider doesn’t disappear mysteriously.
I don’t care what anybody says, I hope that for the sake of irony it does disapear.
Not JUST a glider, an UNDERWATER glider.
Apart from the that Earhart disappeared at sea I fail to see the connection. After all, Amelia was sailing in one of those Airborne Submarines when she disappeared.
Only the North-West Passage isn’t “fabled”!! An ordinary Canadian police schooner (RCMPV St. Roch) sailed from Vancouver to Halifax in 1942 and back next year. Many others did likewise. There was a warm period in the Arctic from 1917 to 1937 (Danish temperature data), similar to this present one.
There’s the 1930’s/40’s again.
That’s news to me. According to Wiki, they also transited the northern route, the real Northwest Passage. That little boat should be trotted out all the time.
During WW2 the Germans attempted to run blockade runners across the top of Russia to trade with Japan.
No references to hand, sorry, and if memory serves they were not successfully, but I think the point is that the voyage was considered a viable one.
Actually only one ship “Komet”, and it got through fairly easily in 1940, though with russian icebreaker assistance for two short stretches. And while it was called a blockade runner to the russians it was actually a camouflaged commerce raider.
How would they see climate change from a single observation? Change can only be observed over some time.
Svend Ferdinandsen : They will PROBABLY be going at the WARMEST
TIME OF THE YEAR and so they will see the GLACIERS CALVING and the
“moraines” at the foot of the glaciers and that will show them HOW FAR
the glaciers have “RETREATED” since……LIKE YESTERDAY……….
and they will all be mightily impressed and dazzled by it all !
SO IT IS ONLY TO CONFIRM the propaganda and indoctrination
they have received INSTEAD OF GETTING AN EDUCATION !
They ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING ANYWAY !!! They are YOUNG !!
.
What they SHOULD DO is stay at home and READ THE EXCELLENT BOOK :
“The Ice Master : The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk ” by Jennifer Niven .
Now THAT would give them SOME IDEA of what LIFE IN THE ARCTIC
on Wrangel Island is really like !
***an opportunity to explore with them in real time a dramatically changing Arctic Ocean,***
Somehow I have failed to see the “dramatically changing Arctic Ocean”. I was there 45 years ago and it still melts a bit in the summer and freezes in the fall. That narrative is full if misinformation and dreams. Tell me how a student going there for the first time will ‘experience” climate change. They will obediently repeat what they have been told. Probably why I would not be invited.
Could we please have a definition of Climate Change. It cannot be measured in trip of this nature; so they must have some preconceived idea of what it is. Is it a Radiative forcing rate of say 1.6 Watts/sq.m as per the IPCC or is it just an assumed temperature rise? We just don’t know do we; but it is vital if any sense is to be made of their conclusions with respect to global influence.
Also I note that there is no mention of any note being taken of volcanic activity in the area. A vital constituent if again any sense is to made of Arctic ice volumes and melting characteristics.
I am fighting my sceptical prejudices here as I am sure some remarkable research will be carried out with due dedication; but fear that the publicity hype obvious in this article will manipulate the findings to reinforce the propaganda of the CAGW MEME.
I worry about how the honest scientists on this trip will be treated.
We shall see.
PS: I trust that ALL those on board appreciate that the trip could not be achieved without considerable use of fossil fuels.
If they really wanted to avoid hypocrisy (since they obviously have pre-concluded in a very unscientific way, that human activity is causing climate changes) they (meaning sponsors) would have sprung for a ship with a huge galley where a few dozen burly young men could row to get them to their destination and back! And they could even have a drummer to set the speed like in the movie Ben-Hur. All cooking, bathing/personal needs + powering the submersible, and scientific instruments and electronics could only be taken care of with wind and/or solar. Only then would they be a bit LESS hypocritical…..
I do hope they’ll be more careful than the other lot!
The ship they are using is interesting, about the length of a US football field with the end zones — a great size for this type of work. I served on a vessel just 50 feet longer when I was but a lad. Big enough to smooth out rough weather, but small enough to know everyone aboard and feel like you are a integral part of the crew. Out ship carried no passengers — everyone had to be a qualified Able Seaman at minimum — I served as a junior officer with bridge duties.
The students would learn a great deal more, and more important things, if they just made them qualify and serve as deck hands or snipes in the engine rooms.
Look, everyone! Dead ahead! Liquid water!
Oooooooh!
Any model projections of how much fossil fuel this voyage will use?
Do we get to see them die after their cruise ship gets trapped in ice? Or do we get to pay for their rescue after their cruise ship gets trapped in ice? Yea, our money pissed away, yet again.
One should not wish an iceberg on this enterprise, but the gods of schadenfreude require a sacrifice
It’s amazing how little substance snowflakes actually exhibit.
I suppose this will all be done under sail, the ship’s diesel engines having been conscientiously and permanently decommission. The broadcast will be powered by solar electricity generated by panels made from recycled, unbleached, fair trade coconut husks, and the passengers and crew will subsist on vegan sea gruel scraped from the edges of sacred icebergs. And once they are firmly and irretrievable stuck fast in the ice they will all commit to donating their emaciated bodies to the care and feeding of our beloved but starving polar bear ambassadors of Mother Earth.
Masterfully enunciated
If they had a smaller ship, they could try rowing it…but of course that would leave even less meat for the poor polar bears!
Reminds me of the very important work we did at a conference in Crete. Or was it at Jupiters Casino at the Gold Coast Queensland one winter, I forget. So much important work needed to be done.
It’s really too bad this kind of important cruising will all be over in a couple of years when fossil fuels are all banned. Do you think there will be any protesting/posting/moaning on board to hasten the end of fossil fuels?
With the stated purpose in print, I fail to see how social scientists contribute to the purpose of this cruise.
Well someone has to handle all the social media which will be brought to bear on this event. So it might as well be a social scientist or two or three or so.
Think of the Tweets!
They’ll be able to study group-think.
In terms of sea ice extent and thickness they may be in for a disappointment. There is a cold sea surface anomaly up at that neck of the woods.
http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/sst/anomaly/2018/anomnight.6.21.2018.gif
Please, can anyone explain the meaning of “historically poignant platform” in context – or at all?
The term ‘historically poignant platform’ is gobbledygook for ‘hogwash’. It just sounds more elegant than using ‘hogwash’.
The government is absolutely shameless. This is over the top waste of taxpayer money. What does it take for people to tell the gov’t to STOP spending more money?
It is ironic that the ship is actually Russian, belonging to the Russian Academy of Science which leases out a number of its research ships to expedition-tourism firms. They are known as “the Professor ships” in the trade because their names all begin with “Professor” or “Akademik”.
I’ve gone on a couple of cruises on them, and they are good, Finland-built, vessels with very professional crews. Extremely sea-worthy, though prone to rolling and pitching rather badly in high seas since they are fairly small and shallow draft (which is a good thing in constricted waters). However, they have very limited ice-breaking capability, so it is probably wise not to try to go through the North-West Passage, especially since melting is going rather slowly this year.
Thick Sea Ice Blocks LNG Exports From Russia’s Arctic Plant
by Reuters|Oleg Vukmanovic|Thursday, June 21, 2018
LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) – Thick sea ice is impeding Arctic shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s newly-built export plant in Yamal, Russia’s state-run nuclear-powered tanker company Rosatomflot said.
Unseasonably severe ice conditions are also clogging routes to Asia through the Northern Sea Route (NSR), leading to the extension of the winter-spring navigation of Atomflot’s nuclear ice-breakers, it said.
The Novatek-operated LNG facility’s fleet of LNG ice-breaking tankers aim to deliver gas to Northeast Asia along the NSR in summertime when ice sheets thin.
In winter, LNG tankers take a westward route to Europe, where cargoes will be reloaded onto waiting tankers for onward transport to Asia.
However, ice has formed on the sea channel in Ob Bay – where Yamal LNG is located – which has “paralysed the independent movement of ships,” it said.
The company said it will extend deployment of its nuclear-powered ice-breakers in the Bay for at least the first 10 days of July and go about dislodging ships stuck in the ice.
Shipping data shows the Boris Vilkitsky tanker loaded LNG at Yamal on June 14 but remains in the area. The Christoph de Margerie LNG vessel has remained stationed north of Yamal for almost a week.
Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic Editing by Alexandra Hudson
https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL8N1TN5SG
I think that this is a clue as to why that sea ice is still in place, actually a clue for the Northern Hemisphere, imo.
“how climate change affects indigenous populations” Most climate change pronouncements have a monetary subtext — either funding, or required marxist re-distribution. Someone should study THAT!