News Story - Extreme science in extreme conditions: frozen in to the Arctic winter
Date: 10 Mar 2015
Dr Markus Frey, a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) ice and atmospheric scientist, is living and working aboard the Norwegian research vessel, R.V. Lance, which has been frozen into the Arctic sea ice in the darkness of winter.
Battling against the polar elements and temperatures that frequently drop to −30 degrees C, Markus is gathering crucial measurements on snow and sea-salt particles, which affect cloud formation and how much sunlight gets reflected by the atmosphere. His work will contribute to a major six month research effort, sponsored by the Norwegian Polar Institute, to monitor Arctic sea-ice across its entire life cycle from formation in the winter to melt in the summer. Understanding the environmental changes in the Arctic region will help to improve predictions of future change and, potentially, what this means for the rest of the planet.
Markus is taking short breaks from the crow’s nest of the ship where his instrumentation sits to send direct reports — we are eagerly awaiting his next update, but in the meantime read on for past updates from Markus. You can also follow the ship’s progress on Instagram and Twitter, and through on-board National Geographic reporting.
This research is known as ‘ABSCISSA’ (Arctic Sea-Ice-Zone Blowing Snow — Contribution to Sea Salt Aerosol), and was funded by a Natural Environment Research Council International Opportunities Fund.
Diary Entry: Friday 27 March
Time: Friday 27/03/2015, 2200 hrs UTC
Position: 78° 13' N / 15° 33' E
Air Temperature: +1.5 °C
Wind Speed: 8 knots
We made it! After 38 days onboard the Norwegian research vessel "Lance" frozen into the pack ice north of 82° latitude we set foot again on land in Longyearbyen / Svalbard. What is the northernmost settlement with a population over a thousand appeared to us now like a Southern "resort" with clear skies and temperatures close to 0°C. Only a week earlier setting free from our last ice floe proved to be a difficult task, but was finally achieved. But the next challenge was to navigate through 100 nautical miles of dense pack ice to reach the ice edge.
Solar eclipse in the Arctic: Friday 20 March
Only a small number of people in the world were fortunate enough to be in the ‘path of totality’ for the solar eclipse on Friday, but Markus was among the lucky few, since the R.V. Lance is currently north of Svalbard frozen in to the Arctic sea ice.
Markus captured these shots during the total solar eclipse and although it was overcast they momentarily experienced complete darkness when the sun was hidden by the moon. Markus has just managed to send his shots back to the UK for us to enjoy!
Diary entry: Wednesday 18 March 2015
Time: 2237 hrs UTC
Position: 82° 34.7′ N / 22° 43.6′ E
Air Temperature: −32.6 °C
Wind Speed: 12 knots
The storm lasted not even 48 hrs, but chilly with winds of 35 knots at -20ºC, and there was blowing snow up and over the Crow's Nest, as well as glimpses of blue skies not much further aloft. All in all favourable conditions for testing our hypothesis on blowing salty snow and the consequences on the production of tiny salt particles in the air. However, for our ice floe the consequences were not so favourable: new cracks and leads opened over night, running right through the middle of expensive scientific equipment installed on the sea ice. As the visibility improved the truth dawned on us as we watched from the ship's bridge the scenery that lay in front of us: the 10m weather mast had not survived and was felled by the raging storm, laying now across a new lead covered by thin ice and blooming frost flowers. Harvard, the expedition leader from the Norwegian Polar Institute gives the orders during our daily morning meeting: shift now from data collection to instrument salvaging mode. But first we need to move the ship, which is frozen stuck to a large 2m thick ice floe … will we be able to free ourselves to be back in Longyearbyen before Easter..? 
Diary entry: Friday 13 March 2015
Time: 1400 hrs UTC
Position: 82° 52.1′ N / 21° 15.1′ E
Air Temperature: −25.6°C
Wind Speed: 4.9 knots
For more than two and a half weeks we have been moored now to “our” ice floe in the Arctic winter pack ice, not far from the North Pole. A storm from the South last week brought warm temperatures of up to −2°C and led to dramatically fast ice drift: tons of ice were pressing against the steel hull of the former sealing ship, the R.V. Lance, raising it about 1 meter out of the sea water. Since the Lance is not an ice breaker we need now another storm to free ourselves from the chilly grip of the pack ice and make it back in time to Svalbard before the end of leg two of N-ICE.
Meanwhile all scientists assisted by a very experienced crew go about their research tasks on the sea ice. My own routine involves twice daily a climb up to the “Crow’s Nest”, some 18 m above the main deck of the Lance. Up in the airy heights I have installed some of the instruments with which we intend to unravel the secrets
For Sunday the weather forecast pinned to the wood wall on the bridge promises up to 50 knot winds, −20°C and some snow fall. Bad news for most of my colleagues, but I am happy: this might be “my storm”, the one I have been waiting for … I am ready.
Diary entry: Sunday 22 February 2015
Time: 2220 hrs UTC
Position: 82° 35′ N / 29° 24′ E
Air Temperature: −26.1 °C
Wind Speed: 19.3 knots
The Norwegian research vessel, the R.V. Lance, has reached its final position for today during its trip back North and is laying still in the pack ice. At a few hundred yards one can see the lights in the polar night shimmering off the upper decks of the coast guard ship “KV Svalbard”, which assists us in breaking a way through the frozen sea. The ice floe which was used as an ice station during leg 1 of the N-ICE 2015 young sea ice cruise had to be abandoned upon our arrival last Wednesday, in fact 6 weeks earlier than planned. The ocean currents and a recent storm had pushed the ice floe and with it the Lance within a few kilometres of the ice edge, initiating its break up. All scientists and crew joined forces in a tremendous 48-hr effort to rescue as many of the scientific instruments as possible until the arrival of K.V. Svalbard yesterday evening. Wind chill below −40°C, buoys and sensors frozen stuck into the sea ice, bent meteorology masts, widening cracks in the ice, the increased likelihood of polar bear encounters this close to the open sea all contributed to extremely difficult working conditions. However, even with a few set backs and some instruments lost the team passed its first test of work on the sea ice with bravour. Time now to rest a few hours and plan for setting up the new ice station.
Diary entry: 15 February 2015
After a week of field preparations we’ll be off tomorrow to sailing on board the ice breaker "KV Svalbard" to RV Lance. All of the 24 researchers had to take a course on protection against polar bears, which included a rifle shooting exercise at freezing temperatures and blowing snow. On another day self-rescue from a fall off an ice floe into the sea was practised. First aid course, risk assessment and information on radio communication in the field followed. Now we are eager to get to the "Lance" to start the field work. However, today a big storm hit the region, with 50 knot winds, blowing snow and relatively warm temperatures, which led to the cancellation of today's SAS flight from Tromsø to Longyearbyen with the new "Lance" crew on board. Let's keep fingers crossed that they will arrive tomorrow.
About ‘ABSCISSA’: Arctic Sea-Ice-Zone Blowing Snow – Contribution to Sea Salt Aerosol
By Markus Frey
“The source of sea-salt aerosols in the Polar Regions appears to be linked to sea ice surfaces, but exact details are unclear. Defining the sources is important given the critical roles that aerosol plays in the atmosphere. For example, they contribute to the partitioning of how much sun light is scattered back to space and how much reaches the Earth surface; they affect the formation of clouds; and they host and enhance important chemical reactions. When they are deposited on the polar ice sheets they leave a record of past conditions that can be accessed by drilling ice cores, and that holds the potential to enable reconstruction of sea ice extent in the past. It is therefore important to understand the sources of polar sea salt aerosol and to be able to predict how they may vary with, and feedback to, climate.
“It was recently proposed that the main source of this polar sea-salt aerosol was the sublimation of salty blowing snow. To test this idea BAS carried out measurements in the Antarctic during a wintertime cruise in the Weddell Sea (June – August 2013). The Norwegian N-ICE 2015 ice drift expedition provides a unique opportunity to repeat the experiments in the sea ice zone of the high Arctic in winter time, where conditions are quite different compared to the Southern hemisphere. We will use the new data to derive physically-based parameterisations of sea-salt aerosol production, and use them in numerical models to test how important this source is for the Arctic and Antarctic regions.”
How do you measure tiny aerosol particles blowing around in Arctic snow?
BAS teamed up with Professor Ian Brooks and Dr Sarah Norris at the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science (ICAS) at the University of Leeds to mount a critical piece of equipment on to the Crow's Nest of the R.V. Lance.
Designed and built by the team at Leeds, the Compact Light-Weight Aerosol Spectrometer Probe, better known as 'CLASP', can be seen in this picture at about 25m above the sea ice. Two more CLASP instruments were mounted on the sea ice at 1m and 10m above the surface snow.
Once every second these instruments have been capturing tiny aerosol particles and measuring the size and number that fall into the size range of sea salt aerosol (SSA) - roughly 0.003-0.01 mm diameter. The SSA are pumped through a scatter cell inside the CLASP, where fluctuations in light intensity allow the particle size to be determined as they pass through a laser beam, scattering light. The flow rate through the instrument is controlled and measured, allowing particle number concentrations to be calculated.
External links:
Read more about the science here:
Norwegian Young sea ICE cruise (N-ICE2015) project blog
Arctic Ship Breaks Free of Ice for Historic Expedition (National Geographic report)
'This Is Really Extreme Science': Adrift in the Arctic Ice With a Shipload of Norwegians (National Geographic report)
Storm Rocks Arctic Research Ship Like ‘Titanic Bulldozer’ (National Geographic report)
