Science & Technology

Ship set to be deliberately trapped in ice

By T.K. Randall
February 20, 2017 ·  4 comments

The RV Polarstern. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.5 Hannes Grobe For early Arctic explorers, becoming trapped in the ice was a nightmare come true - a situation that, if not resolved quickly, could ultimately end both their expedition and their lives.

Now though, climate researchers have taken inspiration from these early Arctic voyages by putting together a plan that will deliberately entrap a research vessel - the RV Polarstern - in the ice.

"The plan is to travel in summer when sea ice is thin and sea extent is much smaller," said project co-leader Professor Markus Rex. "We can travel along the Siberian coast and then make our way with our ice-breaker to the Siberian sector of the Arctic.""Then we just stop the engines and drift with the sea ice."

Known as Mosaic (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate), the $53 million endeavour will ultimately help to provide more accurate climate and weather forecasts.

"In winter the ice is too thick to travel through the ice, we can't break it," said Professor Rex. "It would be way too dangerous to go on snowmobiles, and we have many many containers of big instruments for studying the climate systems which we could never bring in snowmobiles."

"There are many, many, really small scale processes which affect the climate on a regional and global scale in the Arctic which we can't observe from a satellite."

Source: Sky News | Comments (4)

Tags: North Pole, Arctic