Arctic expedition summer 2021

On Tuesday evening, as it is usually outdoor dancing in Stockholm, I took my speaker out on the Helipad on the Afterdeck and danced solo for an hour in the sunset - this is most likely the last sunset we will get to enjoy before September! We passed the polar circle recently and thus, for the next 1,5 months in the Arctic, we will only have daylight 24h a day. In the two evening photos you can see how tranquil the ocean is, how beautiful the reflection of the sunset is on the ocean... Some of us actually spotted whales yesterday, but unfortunately I could not see any. Even though dancing solo on my own, it was magical and I enjoyed the calmness and beauty of the evening while dancing to swing music. Yesterday morning and afternoon was sunny - but still windy. I started the day to sort out the boxes in our container on the 7th deck - separated and marked boxes with balloons and soundings. I brought my speaker to the small container (yellow container on the 7 deck in the sunset photo) - ...

Today was a long day, as the other days on ship: we worked basically the whole day, finished by 21 tonight. The wind became stronger (even though coming from the back), working on the 7th deck we definitely could feel the 1-2 m waves swinging the boat. It felt like you were a bit drunk, walking was slow but you still managed to keep yourself upright and work. We got the radio sounding station set up (the mast and sensors on the rooftop of the yellow container) with its GPS system, and we also succeeded in pre-processing the sounding on the ground station, so that it would be ready to be attached to a balloon filled with helium and then being launched on the helipad. On the photos you can see the white styrox-box with a metal sensor - this is the radio sounding. On the background of that photo you can see the helium tanks. These soundings are actually made in Finland by Vaisala, so really proud of that :) We were so pleased to get the sounding station all set up today - since that will ...

I am sitting in the lounge area in the starboard mess on Oden, enjoying the calm wavy movement from the ship, while we are traveling along the coast of Norway - heading up to the north. We were really lucky with the weather yesterday - there was a high risk of us getting into a low-pressure system with rain and thunderstorm, but we travelled just within the warm sector of the front, with the wind and avoided most of the rain. This gave us perfect conditions for working on the deck and installing instruments on our foremast and the weather station on the 7th deck.  In the morning we set up the 3D sonic anemometer (see the photo, the instrument on the top of the mast that looks like a tripod for the camera). This instrument is an accurate instrument, that sends sound waves that get received on the opposite side by the receiver (on the picture you can see three metal sensors inorder to get the whole 3D flux in the horisontal and vertic...

Good morning from Oden! We are now south from Oslo, heading out to the Atlantic!

Saturday - end of Quarantine and arrival on Oden  I was so happy we finally reached this day - when we can leave the Quarantine Hotel and be transported to Oden! We were transported in 3 turns by a bus only dedicated for us. In order to avoid catching covid during the travel from our hotel rooms to the bus, we had to wear both the facemask and the face shield. Better safe than sorry! Anyways, it was so lovely to finally get out of the room, feel the sun on my face and breath fresh outdoor air! Ready to leave the Hotel and start my life's adventure! I was one of the 24 people joining the last bustransport to Helsingborg, from where we were picked up by Oden crew (who also had several weeks of quarantine on the ship) by small boats (6 persons per boat) in order to get to Oden. It was so nice to meet some of the others joining this adventure in the bus, now for the first time! There are a lot of Germans joining this cruise, which is super nice and I get to practise my German. While dr...

Happy news: everyone staying in Quarantine have passed the second COVID test, that was taken yesterday. This means that we are all going to be transported to Oden tomorrow, cut our Quarantine and actually meet everyone in real life! Can't wait for tomorrow! 

  Traveling up to the North Pole - isn't that everyone's dream? At least it has always been my dream - and finally a dream come true! My interest towards the Arctic (yes that is in the north) grew during my University studies: I wrote my Bachelor thesis at Helsinki University about the influence of clouds in the Arctic on the Arctic climate. Clouds in general has always been my passion - I think clouds are the  window of the atmosphere : they can tell you about the current weather and tell you in case of a change in the weather is to be expected. Let me give you a small science peak into why clouds are som important: Clouds in the Arctic Clouds - consisting of condensed water droplets flying in the atmosphere - in general have two important affects in the weather and climate:  give rise to  precipitation : rain, snow, hail... This of course, affects our life: we might skip our picnic plans if it is raining, go out and build snowmen after a snow event or a farmer is f...