First days in the Arctic - daily procedures with CTDs, Helicopter stations and weather balloons

A few more days has passed in the Arctic, and we are currently at 84 deg N, heading to our first 24-h ice station, which is planned to be on Saturday 7 August.

For the last two days we had some successful CTD kasts and the work on the Helicopter stations both on Tuesday and yesterday (4/8) were successful. The weather for the helicopter station on Tuesday was absolutely fantastic - the photo below is taken in the evening (yes, it is evening! The sun never sets). I am still so amazed by the beauty of the Arctic - and the sudden changes in the weather. 

Yesterday was another successful day for most of us, even though many of us had to work overtime and late in the evening / early morning due to delayed CTD kast schedules. Anyways, we had many happy scientists on board, with lot of water samples to look at. Also regarding our meteorological instrumentations, we discovered an issue with our radio sounding station, but we might have fixed it yesterday - fingers crossed it works now! We have had now 3 launches with out any issues. 

The weather yesterday morning was pretty foggy and cloudy, with a slight change in the weather to more sunnier in the afternoon, and then foggy again in the evening. The winds got stronger and today morning 5:30 when launching the weather balloon, the cold breeze was pretty noticeable… hrrr! 

During the days we are taking CTDs, and thus stationary most part of the day. Until now, during all CTD stations / stops, we had a helicopter station. For one CTD, depending on the depth, it can take up to 4 hours - so we can be stationary for quite a some time during the day. In the evening, and sometimes between CTD stations during the afternoon, we are steaming and breaking ice to the next stop. I hope that we will reach the first 24h station as planned, as we are a bit behind in the schedule due to the failures we had during our first day with the CTDs. They are actually aiming for 60 CTDs during the trip, which is about 50 days long… I hope they will reach their goals!

 

Yesterday, we also had our third Helicopter station, and we were happy to follow their hard work on the ice from Iden (they were out there in the cold for more than 6h!), as they went only about 100 m from the ship. I think they found out taking the Helicopter would be the safest way to enter the ice, instead of taking the stairs. We could watch them taking water samples and I guess 20 ice cores. On the photo below you can actually see how close thet were with respect to Oden. I talked to Lisa afterwards (she is wearing the yellow-blue warm overall we have gotten from Oden), and she said that she was surprised that they were out there for so long - and it was not even cold. I guess as they were working all the time, ice coring and thus doing physical work, it kept them warm. Our pilot had to be bear watching for the whole time - such a hard but important work and very much appreciated! The samples and ice cores were then transported back to Oden by the crane (also captured Lisa in it) and the helicopter returned to Oden. They were happy with the achievement of their work!

And another news — If the weather allows, on Friday (TOMORROW!) me and John will fly with the Helicopter (I guess that will be the 5th helicopter station) to a nice sea ice area with melt ponds further away from Oden in order to perform CO2 gas flux measurements between the ice and the atmosphere, as well as between the water (from the melt ponds) and the atmosphere. We have flux chamber instruments that we use in order to measure the fluxes. We tried out the instrumentations yesterday and will continue preparing today for our little exciting adventure tomorrow. I truly hope the weather will be on our side - in case of bad visibility or fog, we cant go out (hard to fly and polar bear spotting will be difficult). Yesterday, I could also contribute to the preparation work by carrying car batteries (20 kg each), from the front to the back of the ship and finding the pulkas - to provide power and transportation on the ice surface to our instruments. I am soooooo excited — This would be my first time working on ice AND flying a helicopter! I have to remember to bring some extra clothings and chocolate to the trip, in case we are staying out for many hours. 

Today will be another day in the Arctic - in fact - feels like every day there are new things to observe, to experience, to learn, to be amazed of. You never now what will happen the next moment - what is shape of the ice, is there a polar bear, some whales,spontaneus game nights, surprise work assignments, evening dances and moments. We have approximately 48 days left to enjoy - still cant believe this all is reality - it feels like living a dream - and it is actually reality! The best part, it gets better for every day!