Polarstern in Tromsø Jul 31 2023

Last month I joined a scientific cruise on the Norwegian icebreaker Kronprins Haakon. Our plan was to reach station 01 at 84.55° N, 18.78° E north of Svalbard. But the exceptionally thick sea ice of 2 metres and more prevented this. We tried to get north but in vain, we only reached 80° N and a bit.

We were not alone. The Swedish icebreaker Oden and the German icebreaker Polarstern had the same issues. In the night from the 11 to 12 June we were quite near to the Polarstern – less than 10 nm if I remember correctly. The vessel was visible on the “OLEX” navigation screen.

11 June 22:18: Polarstern on the navigation display

After another five week expedition to the Gakkel Ridge, the Greenland Shelf and the Nansen Basin the Polarstern arrived in Tromsø today. Not at the port on the island (I guess, too many cruise ships) but in Tønsvik by the mainland. Some weeks ago I asked the Alfred Wegener Institut (AWI) if it was possible to visit the ship but it couldn’t be done this time. Anyhow I took the car after work and drove there to get at least some photos.

Hopefully I’ll get a opportunity for a visit another time. And yes – I long deeply for the Arctic when I see the Polarstern lying there or check the track in the internet.

But hiking in the Norwegian Nature always helps. Two photos from a short hiking trip after the icebreaker photos:

Cruise leftovers: a seagull, a map and a tiny planet Jun 28 2023

This article is part of the series “2023-06: Arctic Ocean cruise KPH”.

One week ago I left the icebreaker Kronprins Haakon in Longyearbyen, Svalbard after a three week cruise. On the same day I took the plane back to Tromsø together with a lot of scientists from the same cruise.

The cruise went a little differently than planned. As you can see on the map below we seemed to cruise in a quite chaotic way.

Cruise track of the Arctic Ocean 2023 I cruise

But every loop was there for a reason. The left loop leading north was the attempt to cruise to station 05 at 83°58′ N. You see the line of planned stations in the upper right. But our attempt was in vain, the ice was too thick to get there.

So we decided to do research in the Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard. Since this was never the plan we didn’t have a permit to do research in Greenlandic waters. Therefore we headed south and east to do a first ice station in Norwegian waters and then another one at 80 °N. That’s the right loop.

We were lucky: already after a couple of days we got the permit for Greenland. So we headed south and then west again into Greenlandic waters. Here we still had to zigzag a bit through the ice but there was another effect that made the track a bit special: The ice stations.

The ice floes drifted south with a speed of round about 0.7 knots (as far as I remember). When the ice station lasted 36 hours, that’s a drift of more than 45 kilometres. That’s the small loops to the south at 6.5 °W, 4° W and 2° W.

And since we had some travel time, I could take some photos. For example from the incredibly elegant ivory gull.

And even when I was on the sea ice to make aerial photos with my drone I often had some extra minutes to play around with the panorama function, resulting in so-called “tiny planet” photos.

Tiny planet with Kronprins Haakon in the Fram Straight, June 2023

Oh – I’m longing back to the Arctic. Home in Obbola in Sweden it is really warm and 24 °C inside of our house. A bit too warm for my taste. And rain would be very welcome, our garden is very dry.

Travelling from ice to summer Jun 22 2023

This article is part of the series “2023-06: Arctic Ocean cruise KPH”.

This photo was taken three days ago:

These photos were taken three hours ago:

Quite a contrast, isn’t it?

18 June (four days ago)

I stand on the sea ice for the last time as part of the polar research expedition with the ice breaker Kronprins Haakon. It has become quite foggy and we will close the ice station earlier due to bad visibility. If you cannot spot the polar bears it is not safe and we had quite a few of them the last two weeks.

19 June (three days ago)

Today we stop the ship several times for the usual CTD casts to get the salinity and temperature of the sea water in different depths. For science it is always interesting to get comparable measurements. One way is to do a transect, a series of the same type of measurements in different locations, mostly in a line. Today we do CTD casts at 2° W, 1° W, 0°, 1° E, and 2 °E. So today we have crossed the Prime Meridian.

For doing CTD casts the ship must stand still. At 1° E I use this to fly my private drone from the helicopter deck for the first picture above. (Memo to myself: do not fly a drone in fog, it is hard to land.)

20 June (two days ago)

After four days of fog it finally clears up in the evening. And for the first time in 18 days we can see land again, the long and narrow island Prins Karls Forland.

We can get a lot of information about what’s going on on the TV. On channel 9 there is OLEX, a navigation system. I see, that Helmer Hanssen, another research vessel owned by the University of Tromsø is nearby. The ships are getting closer and closer and I go up to the helicopter deck to take some photos. There’s a reason for the ships to meet. Malin, a researcher in the field of arctic and marine biology is transferred from our ship to Helmer Hanssen by boat. She will join another cruise.

21 June (yesterday)

In the morning we have approached Adventfjorden, where the main city Longyearbyen is located. Due to the touristic cruise ships occupying all dock places we will stop in the open water. From there we are transferred to land by boat as well. I’m in the first boat because I want to meet people in Longyearbyen at Forskningsparken. There UNIS, the university of Svalbard is located and a department of the Norwegian Polar Institute, too.

We get a car transport there and I meet Vegard, that helped me with drone flying and Luke, that I have worked with quite a bit. Luke and I have even time to get some outdoor lunch in the summery town. It’s sunny and more than 10 °C. (Too warm for me.) He mentions that it got quite green in Longyearbyen. And I spot the first flowers.

At the airport there are long queues everywhere. It is not build for large groups of slightly disorientated tourists. But we arrived early. Shortly after half past two we lift off. I glue myself to the window to see the fjords, the mountain chains and the glaciers of Svalbard passing by.

Spitsbergen in June — from the plane III

Amidst between Svalbard and Tromsø I manage to spot the arctic island Bjørnøya in the haze. For the first time in my life! The photo is heavily processed to make Bjørnøya visible.

And then we land in Tromsø where the vegetation just has exploded in my three weeks of absence. Everything is green and there are flowers everywhere. I am lucky and get a lift home. (Thank you, Tore!)

22 June (today)

I drop by in the office to meet my colleagues. Good to see them in real life. We talk about the cruise and many other things. But after work I take a bath in the sea. So refreshing when it is summer and 25 °C! That’s more than twenty degrees warmer than four days ago when I navigated my small drone to take a photo of Kronprins Haakon in the sea ice somewhere between Greenland and Svalbard.

23 June (tomorrow)

Tromsø is my work home, but Obbola in Sweden is my home home. Tomorrow I will travel there. If everything goes well it “only” takes 18 hours. And then I finally will be united with my wife Annika again in our cosy house by the Baltic Sea.

The fourth ice station – orthophoto and ice coring Jun 19 2023

This article is part of the series “2023-06: Arctic Ocean cruise KPH”.

It’s Monday, 19 June 13:35 and I just started writing this blog article. For two days the weather has been very foggy and on the 5th ice station (st11) only part of the research could be done due to the bad visibility. While I am writing, we have arrived at our next station (st13) and started to lower the CTD in the moon pool that is in the ship. We are 180 metres west from the prime meridian, that goes through Greenwich. But back to four days ago in times were there was no fog at all …

We are at our 4th ice station with the number st9 and the weather looks ideal for drone flying. Soon after breakfast I’m ready to go on the ice but first the ship has to be anchored to the ice floe. Then the polar bear guard enters the ice and after that we do. As usual most of us leave the helmets by the ship. They are mandatory on deck 3 because of the winches but on the ice we don’t need them.

Drone flying goes well. I even have time and battery to get another try, just to be sure. I corrected exposure, exported 94 images and let them be stitched together to get an aerial “orthophoto” of the area. I added some comments on the image:

After that I have time to stay a bit on the ice. Everything goes well, no one needs my help so I take some photos of Cora doing an ice core. With 110 cm the ice is thicker than the ice corer’s length, therefore the core does not come up in the corer. However Cora just grabs it with her fingers and pulls it up.

Later on the day I play with my private drone on the helicopter deck. One thing is to take aerials from above, another one is to chase ice flows. I am quite nervous because now I look onto the drone from above and it’s hard to tell how close it is to the water. I want to keep my drone and so I keep distance but I get a photo from my favourite ice floe.

At 20:00 I go out onto the ice again, this time to help the oceanographers with the MSS and SUNA. It is really nice that another researcher and I are allowed to help because without us they probably would be faster. Everything takes a little bit the first time. The oceanographers made it clear: You are here to do things and not to take photos. And so this “trip” was very special to me: I didn’t take a single photo! Unbelievable, isn’t it?

Back to the present: The winch with the CTD is still going done, now at a depth of 1800 metres. The bottom depth is shown as 2587 m, so there is a bit to go. The vertical velocity is 1 m/s, so we have almost another hour until the CTD is up again.

Polar bear in the morning Jun 18 2023

This article is part of the series “2023-06: Arctic Ocean cruise KPH”.

One hour ago my telephone rang. 5:32. I picked up the phone. “Polar bear at the port side” I was told. I put on some overclothes over my pyjamas took the photo backpack and the big lens and walked outside. And there it was: I big polar bear quite near the ship. It had already circled the stern of the ship and was now starboard side.

It sniffed curiously around and was interested in all these smells the ropes emitted. And unfortunately is was quite interesting in the air sampling station as well. I hope that all the cables survived.

When it didn’t find anything of interest it slowly walked away into the fog that had started coming up.

The third ice station – MSS and SUNA Jun 16 2023

This article is part of the series “2023-06: Arctic Ocean cruise KPH”.

It is 13 June. Kronprins Haakon has approached 6.5° W in the Fram Strait and today we’ll start our 3rd ice station.

The weather seems to be better in the morning so I go out to fly the drone after breakfast. But this time I do not manage to get enough photos for the aerial orthophoto that is supposed to show the whole ice station.

It is probably a combination of wind and drift. The drone uses GPS to keep its position. The ice floe doesn’t. It drifts in the wind and so the drone seems to be drawn off-course all the time. We may have a drift of 0.6 knots, that’s almost 20 metres per minute.

At the same time it is windy in 80 metres height. This exhausts the batteries pretty fast and finally I have to cancel the flight operation. No orthophoto today. Sorry.

Just some non-drone photos from the morning.

In the afternoon I have the opportunity to join Anna and Julie from the oceanography team. Part of their work is done from the ship and part from the ice. Now they will put two instruments into the water: An MSS measuring turbulences and a SUNA measuring nitrates, one of the main nutrients in the sea. Both instruments also act as CTDs and measure conductivity, temperature and depth. I won’t go into detail because I’m not a scientist and this is not a science blog. I only want to mention that conductivity is used to calculate the salinity. By temperature and salinity you can learn whether the water is Arctic or Atlantic. (Is this correct, oceanographers?)

MSS

The first thing was to get ready the MSS. It needs some preparation to first connect battery, converter, power adapter, computer and the MSS and then start the software. Some of the connections are quite fragile. The MSS is connected to the computer and sends continuous data that is shown on the display. When it is put into the water, a recording is started. Then the MSS is supposed to fall freely. Therefore there has to be an amount of extra cable in the water but not so much that it would get tangled. The cable is more than 200 metres long and the recording is manually stopped when the depth has become constant. Now it’s exercise time: Bring up the instrument again. The MSS is still sending data but it is only used to know when to slow down with winching up the instrument.

Normally a series of three casts is done in a row. That helps to find and correct faulty measurements.

I am watching curiously (Photo: Ann Kristin Balto, Norwegian Polar Institute)

The MSS is in the water – to the right the ice

SUNA

The SUNA is much easier to power on and to deploy. I’ll help Julie a bit with preparation, then I put the instrument into the water. 50 metres down – nice and evenly – and then 50 metres up again. The instrument is surprisingly heavy even under water. So I’m learning a lot about scientific measurements and get a bit of workout as well today.

While I pull up the SUNA I get informed by other scientists how expensive this instrument is and that there probably is no insurance. Thank you for that ;-)

It happens quite often, that scientists do measurements not for themselves, but for colleagues. So it is the case with the SUNA. The data is collected here and now but then send to other scientists that will process the data later.

Me deploying a SUNE (Photo: Ann Kristin Balto, Norwegian Polar Institute)

Other measurements

On this ice station we have the luxury to work by the open water and do not have to cut a hole into ice which is more than one metre thick. Soon we get neighbours: other scientists getting samples and measurements. As usual all guarded by a polar bear guard that carries a flare gun to scare off polar bears and a rifle. Today it is Harald, our cruise leader.

An unexpected encounter

Julie and Anna have started another series of MSS casts. Dima and Cora are passing by, doing another transect. Rupert is their polar bear guard. After a while I look into their direction and see the four figures of the transect team near an ice ridge. Three are clad in the usual colourful overalls, one figure – further to the right – is white. Why? Is it a piece of ice? No, it is a polar bear standing on its back legs. All these observations and thoughts of mine probably just took a second.

I directly call Harald: “Polar bear, over there”, pointing in the direction. The bear is on all fours again and hidden between the ridge ice. Harald takes the VHF to inform everyone. So Rupert, the polar bear guard of the team that is nearest to the bear gets the information as well.

Dima and team turn around and come to our place. The bridge has spotted the polar bear soon after I did and now we hear in the VHF, that the polar bear is moving away. Perfect! We stay alert for a while, then research is continued.

I however follow Dima to the ship. When the polar bear should decide to come back it’s one person less on the ice.

Usually it is one of the three bridge watches who spots a polar bear. Then the VHF will be used to inform everyone about:

in which direction is the bear (1 to 12 o’clock)
how far is it away
what is it doing (standing, going away, heading to the ship …)

We will never know, why the polar bear was not spotted earlier. One guess is that it had slept all the time well hidden from view. When Dima came nearer with the Magnaprobe, the “beep” of the instrument may have woken up the bear. But it’s still just a guess.

Later at the daily 6 o’clock meeting we talk about this encounter. Harald shows a sketch that he has drawn on the digital whiteboard.

Personally I felt save all the time because there were two experienced and fully equipped polar bear guards nearby. I think however that my communication to Harald although fast could have been more precise. Well, I’m still learning …

This was an interesting day on the ice. I’m only a bit sulky because I didn’t manage to get the drone photos I wanted to.

Midnight sun in the Arctic Jun 15 2023

This article is part of the series “2023-06: Arctic Ocean cruise KPH”.

Just a photo from today, taken three minutes after midnight.

Drone flying between ice stations Jun 14 2023

This article is part of the series “2023-06: Arctic Ocean cruise KPH”.

The 3rd ice station st4 (78°50′ N 006°30′ W), was finished yesterday. Tomorrow we will start the 4th ice station st9 (78°50′ N 004° W) on our scientific cruise. The journey led us to the Fram Strait instead of north of Svalbard. That was because we could not break through the surprisingly thick multiyear ice to get further north.

Right now we are at 78°46’N 5°00’W, engines off. We drifted with almost 1 knot southeast and just in the moment while I am writing this sentence we start actively moving again heading more or less eastwards to st9.

After we had left the ice station we first headed to 8° W yesterday evening and then took a CTD cast each degree in longitude. 8° W, 7° W, 6° W and just now 5° W. A CTD measures amongst others salinity and temperature of the water column and also takes water samples from different depths. Since the last station was in deeper water (round 900–1000 m) the CTD cast took time. Time to use my private drone to fly a bit around. Since I do not need any compass calibration and such to just take some snapshots I could start and land it from the helicopter deck. Of course I asked the captain first.

Here are some shots from the ship in the ice from different directions.

About yesterday’s ice station I will a write later. Tomorrow I might be quite busy.

It is still a bit special to be in the Arctic and have better internet than a lot of populated places in Germany. On the cruise last year we only had a shared email address using Iridium for sending text messages and occasionally a tiny image. Now internet became normal on board. Yes, it makes many things much easier but I also feel a bit of nostalgia. It felt nice somehow to be far away from daily life for a while on last years cruise.

Ballooning in the Arctic Jun 12 2023

This article is part of the series “2023-06: Arctic Ocean cruise KPH”.

This is a balloon. This is a radiosonde.

This is an inflated balloon, filled with helium. This is an unpacked radiosonde, containing various sensors and a transmitter.

The styrofoam-wrapped weather station is unpacked

To watch the balloon start I leave the container on deck 6 and go outside. And there it comes, the red weather balloon with the attached radiosonde.

First it is stuck in turbulences and the heavy wind. On the next photo you see the radiosonde dangling to the right. It has been blown aside. After having been chased over deck by the wind gusts it finally lifts off and rises into the sky.

If everything goes well it will rise up to 30 kilometres sending weather data via Iridium satellite network.

This is a project of the German Meteorological Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst) where the data is used amongst others to improve weather forecasts.

There’s a reason why I could witness the balloon start today. Normally I would have joined the oceanographers on the ice today, but the whole ice station has been cancelled due to the weather. With wind speeds of 15 m/s, gust speeds of 19 m/s and snowfall with whiteout conditions the whole morning it was just not possible to establish a safe station. Instead of that we did only the CTD-casts (CTD stands for Conductivity, Temperature, Depth – important sea water properties) and deployed plankton nets. This you safely can operate from the ship. Meanwhile the ship was blown southwards with almost a knot (a nautical mile per hour).

Now it is half past eight and the ice guys are looking for a floe. Wind has started calming down a bit and the sun has come out. Perhaps we can start with our ice station tomorrow before breakfast. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

First I’ve been on deck to take photos, now I’m enjoying the view from my cabin 468 on board of Kronprins Haakon.

The second ice station – drone flying and more Jun 11 2023

This article is part of the series “2023-06: Arctic Ocean cruise KPH”.

9. June – looking for a floe

We are in the ice again. While D., the ice expert looks for the best floe to work on together with the captain, I use the time to prepare the drone, including a spare one. The rest of the morning I’m mainly on the bridge doing polar bear watch. We are lucky, no polar bears are around and all the people can work on the ice without any interruption.

Looking for the floe for the 2nd ice station

9. June – drone flying, first try

After lunch it’s time to get out on the ice and do a second series of aerial photos. I prepare the drone, do my preflight check following my checklist and bring the drone up into the air. While the drone is gaining altitude I can feel wind speed increasing and the wind becoming gusty. I fly to the starting point of the area to cover and start doing the first slice of images. The remote control issues a wind warning. I try to continue but realise that flying the way back takes three times longer than flying the way there. This exhausts the battery a lot and it becomes clear that I cannot fly drone today, at least not in 80 metres height.

The polar bear guard enters the ice first

I use some time to fly the drone in lower altitudes to train a bit and take some photos. The wind calms down a bit and I try to make a so-called “tiny planet” image. Yes, it worked:

Tiny planet image of Kronprins Haakon in the ice

The rest of the time I used to take photos from the researchers, including some detail photos.

Science in action I – is there plankton in the sample?

Detail IV – pulling up the water sampler

Science in action IV – checking a water sample

10 June – following a transect

The next day brings beautiful and calm weather. I will follow D. and C. who will walk a triangle over the ice. D. uses a Magnaprobe to measure the snow thickness each step. C. pulls a sledge with a GEM2, that measures ice thickness with a radar. I just follow. Behind me: the polar bear guard. No group goes out without. Since we move quite slowly – D. has to push a pole into the hard snow with every step – I have time to take photos.

The finish flag will be put into the snow

It is really interesting to hear D’s comments on the snow and ice we are traversing. Anyhow I feel guilty. Shouldn’t I have tried to fly again?

10 June – drone flying, second try

I’m lucky. We are back at the ship early and the time to leave has postponed a bit. While D. and C. are calibrating the GEM2 I’m going to the ship and then to my room to fetch the drone. I’m quite sweaty, the water- (and air-)proof Regatta suit is no fun when temperatures are round 0 °C. It’s too warm.

And then I’m back on the ice. I’m lucky, the conditions are good and soon the drone is in the air.

(Photo: Ann Kristin Balto, Norwegian Polar Institute)

While I fly the drone it gets cloudy. This makes the snow on the ice floe a featureless area of white. Instead of looking for visual hints I count seconds, seeing nothing on the display. Will it work?

After the third flight (I have three batteries) I think I’ve covered everything I wanted. Time to take an oblique photo of Kronprins Haakon.

When I’m back I upload the photos and start calculating the orthophoto, which is a photo stitched together with perspective correction and geo information. The first result using a fast algorithm is awful. Positioning on some elements is wrong and we have more people and snow mobiles on the ice than in reality. The slower algorithm works much better. Only some of the ice floes are blurred. Perhaps they turned while I took the photos.

Perhaps I’ll create a visually better version at home. Here I don’t have the time and patience to do that.

This day confirmed again: I have a great job, even though a cruise is only some weeks a year.

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