![]() ![]() He wants to know what happens to heat absorbed by the ocean. ![]() “We’ll get to see the whole movie of how the ice cover evolves,” says Don Perovich, a sea ice physicist at Dartmouth who will be joining the fifth leg of the expedition at the end of May. “There are all kinds of wonderful things about clouds in the Arctic-their radiative effects and effects on the surface energy budget that determines things like melting and freezing of the sea ice,” he says. This time Shupe will be watching the clouds. A year of taking precise measurements and watching seasonal changes could give them the raw data they needed to create the kind of climate models that tell us what might happen as the top of the world warms. It had to be a year, he and other Arctic researchers agreed. “I had no idea where the ice came from where it was going after we left,” he says. Shupe began pursuing a yearlong Arctic trip in 2009 after a six-week-long expedition in 2008 left him feeling like his time to conduct research was over before had begun. I think we’ll learn so much more about the physical processes that will help us in our predictive capabilities.” “Ultimately the whole design is to improve our models,” says Matthew Shupe, an earth scientist at the University of Colorado and NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory who will be on the expedition. Research has also linked a weaker jet stream to more heatwaves and floods. When that temperature difference decreases, the jet stream wobbles, and a swirling mass of cold air called the polar vortex is able to send blasts of frigid winter air south.Įxperts say this weaker jet stream is partially responsible for the cold snap that made parts of the U.S. The contrast between cold air at the poles and warm tropical air, helps keep the polar jet stream evenly blowing across the northern hemisphere. Photographs by Esther Horvath, National Geographic “Understanding the arctic helps us understand extreme weather.” “The arctic is the area where much of the weather is made,” says Rex. What makes the grueling trip worth it?Īrctic temperatures are warming, and that influences more than sea ice. And days will be highly structured to ensure everyone aboard the ship maintains their circadian rhythms. Guards must wear night vision goggles to scout for polar bears. The ecologists studying phytoplankton and algae will only use red lamps (white light could disrupt their seasonal patterns). Those participating in the leg that takes place over polar night will have to carefully conduct their research. The expedition will mostly take place on a German ice breaker called the Polarstern, but four additional ice breakers supplied by Sweden, Russia, and China will periodically deliver people and supplies. Leaving from Tromsø, Norway on September 20, the ship will position itself in the transpolar drift stream and float, trapped in ice for a year, to northern Greenland. It will be the largest and longest Arctic expedition in history and the first major Arctic expedition in a region that climate change is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth. Named MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate), the $150-million-dollar expedition will last for a full year and involve people from 19 different countries. Photograph by Esther Horvath, National Geographic Two of the three trainers, Simon Kraus (left) and Markus Breck help training participants board the Billefjord vessel. ![]() Here, they arrive at their rescue vessel after finishing their training in Svalbard. ![]() MOSAiC expedition participants could volunteer to take a rigorous 55-hour survival course called the Polar Code Survival Training. ![]()
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