Sea ice and snow cover experts support global climate study
Dartmouth College
HANOVER, N.H. – September 20, 2019 – Dartmouth experts on Arctic sea ice and snow cover are taking part in what is billed as the “largest polar expedition in history.” The year-long, multinational Arctic expedition began today when a German icebreaker, the Polarstern, set sail from Tromsø, Norway.
Beyond simply cruising across the Arctic over the next year, the Polarstern will intentionally lock itself into the Arctic ice. Once frozen into the ice, the icebreaker will drift with the floe as it tracks across the ocean to study the health of the high Arctic.
The “Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate” (MOSAiC) expedition marks the first time a modern research icebreaker will be set to drift in the Arctic for an entire year. The path of the drift is expected to allow scientists to comprehensively investigate the region, including by observing the Arctic winter in the vicinity of the North Pole.
“The threats posed to the planet from global climate change are real and they are coming on fast,” said Donald Perovich, a professor at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering and the expedition’s co-lead for sea ice research. “Hopefully, this study will be historic not only for its scale, but for its ability to allow us to understand the causes and consequences of changes in the Arctic.”
Focused planning for the MOSAiC expedition began about a decade ago. Climate processes in the central Arctic that will be studied in the research form a missing piece in the puzzle that is needed to better understand global climate change.
“After over ten years of planning, this research mission could not come at a more important time. The impacts of climate change are amplified in the Arctic, so this could be our best shot to explore the region while there is still time to assess and respond to change,” said Perovich, a member of the expedition’s project board.
MOSAiC is led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). According to the organizer, the expedition’s rotating crews of researchers and support teams will gather data on the Arctic atmosphere, sea ice, ocean, ecosystems and biogeochemistry “in order to gain insights into the interactions that shape the Arctic climate and life in the Arctic Ocean.”
During the year-long expedition, nearly 300 researchers from 17 countries will rotate aboard the Polarstern. The project will deploy an international fleet of four icebreakers as well as helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to support the research. In total, the expedition will include 600 international participants and cost about $155 million.
“The uncertainties in our climate models are nowhere bigger than in the Arctic,” said Markus Rex, head of MOSAiC and an atmospheric physics expert from the Alfred Wegener Institute. “There aren’t any reliable prognoses of how the Arctic climate will develop further or what that will mean for our weather. Our mission is to change that.”
Dartmouth researchers participating in MOSAiC include Perovich, Thayer graduate students Ian Raphael and David Clemens-Sewall, as well as Christopher Polashenski, an adjunct assistant professor at Thayer and a research geophysicist at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL).
“Due to logistical and scientific constraints there is much we don’t know about processes in the Arctic,” said Clemens-Sewall. “The multidisciplinary approach and superior logistical support will enable us to learn more about the Arctic and help us predict future climate change.”
Perovich, Clemens-Sewall and Polashenski will sail on later legs of the expedition. Raphael will join the Polarstern for a second time in August 2020 for the expedition’s final leg.
“MOSAiC is so critical because the sheer volume of data that we will collect simply isn’t feasible any other way,” said Raphael, who will research ice growth and the melting of sea ice. “We already know that the climate is rapidly changing, and we have enough data to understand why. We desperately need structural change, and that starts with evidence that can’t be ignored.”
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In addition to the Dartmouth team, countries represented in the expedition include Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The ship-based teams will be supported on land by researchers from Austria and South Korea.
For more information on the MOSAiC Arctic expedition: https://www.mosaic-expedition.org/
The MOSAiC web app tracks the Polarstern’s drift route live: follow.mosaic-expedition.org
Follow MOSAiC and the Dartmouth researchers on social media:
Twitter: @MOSAiCArctic (#MOSAiCexpedition #Arctic #icedrift)
Instagram: @mosaic_expedition (#MOSAiCexpedition)
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“understand the causes and consequences of changes in the Arctic. How the *** do they figure this stunt will have any insight into the CAUSES of any change? A one-time snapshot.
Translation
the (MOSAiC) expedition marks the first time a modern research icebreaker will be set to drift in the Arctic for an entire year
So any data we collect will need to be re-collected for at least another 30 years before it begins to make any sense.
The threats posed to the planet from global climate change are real and they are coming on fast
And what exactly are those threats and how are they related to this particular first time trip?
The uncertainties in our climate models are nowhere bigger than in the Arctic
We really have no idea whats happening, thus the reason for this first ever trip.
There will be more. Many more.
Let’s see…. a “scientific team” dispatched to prove AGW. No matter what they find it will be bad for man because we use fossil fuels. How many of these wasteful ventures must we endure before we call bull shit? Fund a team to find something and they will find it.
Interesting hull design. What is the evacuation plan in the case of the Polarstern getting crushed in the ice?
According to Tony Heller (YouTube rrleased today), the location that the ship will be icebound in was open water in the early 1900’s.
Not.
Evidence pls?
Reference please?
What is the point? If all the sea ice melted it would not cause the “global sea level”, whatever that is, to rise.
Personally I don’t foresee much science getting done. Once they find out how cold an Arctic winter actually is, and how dark it is way out there, probably many hours will be wiled away in nice warm ships quarters.
Is the bar well stocked?
I’m astonished at some of the comments here: this is primary research into an important area of the planet… why wouldn’t we fund the best new research in this area? whatever your views on climate change, surely we want and need to know how the polar ice operates in winter?
It’s agenda-driven pseudoscience. You can smell the confirmation bias. Well maybe not you specifically, but anyone with at least half a brain.
One Tony Mcleod lost his bet about ice loss, you were behind him. He lost and, AFAIK, he’s not been back under that name (Well done Tony, I know you are watching like a good Queenslander). Will you take a bet, lose, and go away? You did say somewhile back you were done with WUWT and would not return. And, still, like a rash, you return.
Ice “operates”?
This is a repeat of Nansen’s Fram expedition, 1893-96. How much did it cost then?
Wikipedia:
Nansen’s original estimate for the total cost of the expedition was 300,000 kr. After giving a passionate speech before the Parliament of Norway (Storting),[a] Nansen was awarded a grant of NOK 200,000; the balance was raised from private contributions which included 20,000 kroner from King Oscar II of Norway and Sweden. The Royal Geographical Society in London gave £300 (about NOK 6,000).[20] Unfortunately, Nansen had underestimated the financing required—the ship alone would cost more than the total at his disposal. A renewed plea to the Storting produced a further NOK 80,000, and a national appeal raised the grand total to NOK 445,000. According to Nansen’s own account, he made up the remaining deficiency from his own resources.[21] His biographer Roland Huntford records that the final deficit of NOK 12,000 was cleared by two wealthy supporters, Axel Heiberg and an English expatriate, Charles Dick.[22]
One of the experiments is an engineering one. To see if the hull can withstand the pressure.
Not one positive comment about an important research project.
100 comments so far and the vast majority seem that they are just not interested in the science. Thats the tell. The vast majority here don’t wont this kind of research done because it will probably confirm their fears.
How pitiably small-minded and sad. Shame on this site for its anti-science dog-whistling.
That’s rich, given the destruction of data at UEA and Canada, and Mann refusing to give up publicly funded data so it can be checked. If you’re so pro-science why don’t you call out those destroyers of data?
probably because theyve shown a strong preconcieved/ desired result?
and because all of this apart from the ship being crushed by ice could be done with remote sensors?
Yeah, we’re not as impressed by Alarmist pseudoscience as you are. Go figure.
“100 comments so far and the vast majority seem that they are just not interested in the science. Thats the tell.”
I think the main sentiment of skeptics about this voyage is that the people involved are True Believers in CAGW and skeptics are not sure what kind of “science” will be produced.
After all, we already have an organization, the UN IPCC, that set out to find human causes to the Earth’s climate, and low and behold, they found the connection, to their satisfaction, and it pays very well. This arctic voyage may be more of the same.
We will be able to judge much better after we get some results from this expedition. Until then, be very skeptical. Of everything, not just climate science. 🙂
That’s pathetic Loydo- after an an unbelievable tally of failed predictions, numerous carbon spewing conference, endless hypocrisy, lies, lies, lies and failed climate models. No chance of biased “science” here LOL. The question is: when are scientists in this field going to be honest and try to reclaim some dignity and trust?
It is an important research project. It is also being over-hyped, which annoys me. It is not like 1893 when we had no remote sensing data; today we have even nuclear submarines launching nuclear bathyscaphes with lithium batteries catching fire.
I agree entirely with Loydo above. This terrifically important experiment will emerge near the autumn solstice 2020 and will be able to prove that the ‘melt’ bottomed out at over four million square kilometres as it has done for the last 12 years pace 2013. Known as four Wadhams after that climate scientist who does Arctic science like all these other Arctic scientists. It will be interesting to watch. (Btw ‘charctic’ shows we are scraping round just above 4mkmsq as I write. Phew!!)
Sorry I meant equinox. And I’m a sailor!
Getting stuck in the ice on purpose will be a nice change for them.
This has been done in almost exactly the same way twice before. By Fram in 1893-96 and by Sedov in 1937-40.
Sedov found considerably milder winter temperatures (about 10 degrees) than Fram and only two thirds as thick ice (c. 2 meters as against 3.5 meters), despite a more northerly drift path:
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ihr/article/download/27195/1882519950
I wonder which will be used for comparison?
“Quackademics On Ice” sounds like a good show. Popcorn time.
Good for them raising the money and all the jobs being created “green jobs” Maybe spending a week at a time, with internet access and fresh vegetables sounds good. I spent a year in the arctic(N of the 72nd) before sat communications, weekly flights brought in mail, 3 movies etc, but normally there for 4 months at a time listening to a few cassettes, watching 3 of which 2 definitely crappy movies and no ability to make phone calls. This sounds like a cake walk…
I wonder, how do you make prognoses far into the future of a caotic and nonlinear system as climate, or weather for that part…?
“The threats posed to the planet from global climate change are real and they are coming on fast,” said Donald Perovich, a professor at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering and the expedition’s co-lead for sea ice research. Sounds sto me that they have already “decided” that the “climate changes” are not net beneficial.
I would love to sequester all the CAGW alarmists in the Arctic aboard a floating vessel stuck in sea ice for a year or more, or a decade, or for all eternity would be the best. But while they’re there, I hope we can cut off their links to the Internet, satellite phones, cell service, etc. so that the rest of us would not be burdened by their pointless utterances and opinions and fear mongering. I would not prevent them from having access to Netflix or Game of Thrones, or streaming content on a Read Only basis.
I thought this was going to be a news item originating in The Onion or The Babylon Bee.
“Academic team to be frozen in Arctic ice for historic polar expedition”
Will they prove the collapse of arctic ice due to man-caused global warming by thawing out and resuscitating themselves in in perhaps 2050?
They need four ice breakers to show how little ice there is.
If you are planning on being stuck, why do you need four ice breakers?
“Hopefully, this study will be historic not only for its scale, but for its ability to allow us to understand the causes and consequences of changes in the Arctic.”
A rhetorical trick to get us to think it important.
It will be as historic as my riding my motorcycle through Lockhart Sunday. His declaring it historic doesn’t make it historic. Sticking your boat in ice intentionally may be a first, but that doesn’t make it historic.
Will their expedition be “famous or important in history?” Not if it goes as planned.
Wouldn’t it be a lot cheaper and more efficient to just rent local freezer space and stash them in there?
Guess I just don’t understand academia.
All those helicopters and planes flying in and out will probably release a substantial amount of heat and CO2.
But not much to see up there, since the sun won’t shine most of the winter. BRRRRRR!