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Away from the corona pandemic, frozen in the Arctic, Swedish researcher Adam Ulfsbo is managing the ice. On board the research ship Polarstern, he hopes to be able to collect data that will contribute to research on climate change.
“Life and work on board are good, and we work without restrictions and social distance, as long as the weather, the ice and the polar bear guards allow it,” says Adam Ulfsbo of the Arctic Ocean.
The Corona pandemic reverses the daily lives of most of us. But hardly for Adam Ulfsbo of Gothenburg, a Polarstern icebreaker researcher who has been frozen in the ice cream package for several months.
– Life and work on board are good and we work without restrictions and social distance, as long as the weather, the ice and the polar bear guards allow it, he tells TT.
The plan is for the icebreaker to operate on ice for a year. Meanwhile, researchers from 20 countries are replacing each other. There are around 60 scientists and 40 crew members on board the ship during each stage. Adam Ulfsbo arrived in late February, to say the least, everyday life.
– It was polar night and it was very cold with temperatures around 40 degrees less. Considering the cooling effect of the wind, it was closer to minus 62. So it is important to dress warm and not leave any bare skin in the wind.
The polar night means that the sun never rises: it is dark all day. Since Ulfsbo boarded he has become more comfortable. Now the temperature is between 10 and 30 degrees less.
– The transition from polar night to day with the return of the sun was fantastic to experience in this harsh but beautiful environment, he says.
The expedition is a great project, the largest arctic expedition to date. Investigators frozen the ship in the package outside Siberia in September last year. Then he has been pushing with the ice cream.
The Arctic is the center of global warming, and researchers hope that work on the ship is key to better understanding global climate change. The hope is that the collected data will be used worldwide to take the investigation to a new level.
Adam Ulfsbo works every day in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Gothenburg. On the expedition, he studies the marine carbon dioxide system in the Arctic Ocean and in sea ice. Carbon dioxide is one of the gases that contributes to the greenhouse effect and also makes the sea more acidic.
At the same time, phytoplankton in the seas and on sea ice uses carbon dioxide for growth. Ulfsbo takes samples of seawater at a depth of 4,000 meters and drills ice cores to measure, among other things, the content of carbon dioxide and chlorophyll.
– My research provides new knowledge and data on, among other things, the carbon dioxide system and marine acidification.
But it is the research that has its risks. The ship’s dock has a polar bear clock throughout the day, which researchers reinforce during the day in hourly shifts. Ice work is also ensured by armed polar bear guards.
– A week ago, early in the morning, we received the visit of our first polar bear. Only after a couple of hours was it far enough away that we could train on the ice again, says Adam Ulfsbo.
Especially important with the expedition is that such measurements were previously made in the Arctic during the summer. For the first time, scientists collect data during the polar winter.
The corona pandemic has practical consequences even in the Arctic Ocean. Adam Ulfsbo was reportedly released on the ship in early April, but it was not.
– The idea was that he would fly home through Svalbard. Instead, the plan is instead to traverse the ice to the ice fjord at Svalbard in late May to take refuge and rotate the expedition participants and crew for the next leg.
It is only after rigorous security measures that new researchers will be able to trust him. In early May, participants in the next stage will begin a supervised quarantine with recurring virus tests.
Adam Ulfsbo estimates that he will arrive in Bremerhaven with a German research ship only in early June, while the icebreaker Polarstern will return north through the ice to continue the expedition. It is scheduled to last until mid-October.
Fixed: In an earlier version of the text, the fact box contained an incorrect statement about the cost of the expedition.
mosaic expedition
Name of the expedition: Multidisciplinary drift observatory for the study of the Arctic climate (mosaic).
Duration of the expedition: 390 days.
Total distance the ship operates on ice: 2,500 kilometers.
Ice movement: an average of seven kilometers per day.
Researchers: from 20 different countries, and during the year an estimated 600 researchers work on the ship.
Number of boats: In addition to Polarsten, four smaller icebreakers, including the Swedish Oden.
Duration of the polar night during the expedition: 150 days.
Expense cost: EUR 200,000, corresponding to SEK 2.2 million (plus the cost of instruments and researchers).
Ice thickness: It must be at least 1.5 meters for the equipment to be installed on ice.
Polar night
Polar night, which means the sun never rises, occurs north of the north polar circle and south of the south polar circle.
During the polar night, the sun is below the horizon throughout the day. Polar night is also called mid-winter darkness.
Although it is a formally polar night, it is not dark everywhere. This is because sunlight shines as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere. You must be north of approximately 72 ° latitude for it to be experienced as completely dark in the middle of the day. The Polarstern ship is much further north than that.
