Yesterday we traversed the ‘monkey tail’ just clipping it’s end, heading north from Barrow up 150W. Along the way we experienced a full portfolio of freeze up conditions. On the 27th, steaming westward along the multi-year ice edge there was a swell and pancake ice formation. When we return to the ice edge yesterday it was flat calm and sheets of ice were forming. We entered the tail, to find low coverage of multi-year ice, and plenty of nilas, young grey ice and thin first year ice. The hotch-potch of young ice types telling the story of several days of freezing conditions. We exited the monkey tail, and the wind had kicked up a little, causing pancake formation at the ice edge. I hope these photos convey how beautiful the ice pack was during our traverse.

Right now there is no ice in sight. We are in a hole where first year ice has completely melted out this summer. So time for me to catch up with data entry (yawn!).

Incidentally, can anyone can identify the bird that blew into our ship during the winds two days ago?

~Jenny Hutchings

We are heading into the ice pack in the South-Eastern Beaufort, into a part of the pack that my assistant Alice Orlich has affectionately named ‘The Monkey Tail’. Alice got to join an ice reconnaissance helicopter flight today. It is pretty interesting ice, with small floes of thick (>1.5m) multi-year and thin (~50cm) first year ice. The floes are very uniform in size. From the 2000m altitude you can almost imagine one is looking at a giant unmade jigsaw puzzle. It is really obvious that one could imagine modelling the sea ice around us right now as a granular material. It looks quite different from the central ice pack. Winter has begun, 10cm ice formed over night between the older ice floes, and a sprinkling of snow earlier this morning.

~Jenny Hutchings

SUCCESFUL recovery of the CABOS mooring today!!

Visit the NABOS/CABOS website: http://nabos.iarc.uaf.edu

We left Kugluktuk early this morning, and are now heading to the Beaufort Sea. No ice encountered yet, so I have time to write a little. However there is also not much to report! We had, thankfully, an uneventful trip to reach the ship, and we are settling in to the new ship routine. We found all our gear, and every thing is in working order. So now all we have to do is await the ice.

We did not have enough time in Kugluktuk to visit the village. We did spend a few minutes picking lingonberries by the airport. They were rather good, having had a touch of frost already. The fall colours are magnificent, though perhaps you can not see this from the distant view in the photograph of Kugluktuk I took from the ship. If you want to follow what life is like on the Louis S. St. Laurent and the variety of activities happening on the ship check out the WHOI blog at http://www.whoi.edu/beaufortgyre/dispatch2009/index2009.html . I will try to keep you informed of the ice conditions we encounter on our journey. If you have any questions about this, please do send them my way via the IARC web-master. (webmaster@iarc.uaf.edu)

~Jenny Hutchings

Alice and I are off to the Beaufort Sea again. We leave Fairbanks tonight, and should be on the Louis S. St. Laurent by Thursday. 2 days of travel just to meet the boat. I am looking forward to the cruise. It is a month later than previous years, so we will be in the Beaufort at the time when the minimum ice extent is reached and the ocean starts to freeze up again. As you can see from the planned cruise track, we are hoping to get quite far north. I wonder how our progress with be.

The Cryosphere Today website (http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/) gives some insight into what the current ice conditions are like. Looking at the satellite passive microwave map of ice concentration from yesterday, we see the ice extent in the Beaufort right now is similar to the record lows of the previous two years. One difference from these last two years is that the edge is quite diffuse, due to wind forced divergence of the ice pack during August. So we expect to see more areas with unconsolidated ice this year compared to previous years.

This should be a packed cruise. We only have 4 weeks, of which about 2 will probably be in the ice pack. We will be collecting visual and in-situ measurements at ice stations to validate passive microwave ice concentration products. I will try to keep you posted on what the ice conditions are like during the cruise. I am also interested in how the distribution of ice types has changed in the Beaufort Sea since the 1990s. We have found that ice moves into the Northern Beaufort from the Chukchi Sea during most winters. Since the turn of the centary the Chukchi Sea has become a seasonal ice zone, so this ice entering the Beaufort is first year ice. This has dramatic impacts on the ice recirculation in the Beaufort Gyre. Essentially this ice is becoming younger. Our observations will be compared against buoy drift models of ice age . Is the Beaufort Sea going to recover it’s old ice pack? Based on what we see from the buoy and satellite data this year, it looks like this has not started to happen yet.

~Jenny Hutchings

The NABOS 2009 cruise concluded on September 8 in Kirkenes, Norway. Check out the map on the previous post to see their path. Re-deployment of CABOS moorings is still to come.

More information about the NABOS/CABOS projects is available at: http://nabos.iarc.uaf.edu

photo by A.Talanov

View NABOS 2009 in a larger map

Day 24
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Final meeting and social gathering

Today we saw the first signs of civilization with a ship on the horizon around 6:45 PM tonight. I also spotted lots of orange jellyfish type creatures in the water as I wandered around on deck earlier in the day. I’ll have to look up what they actually are when I reconnect with the world again in a couple of days.

We had our final meeting to go over all that was accomplished during the expedition including the most CTD casts ever, 2 ITP mooring deployments, about 5 normal mooring deployments including the first ever in the St. Anna trench. After dinner the crew on the bridge spotted a pack of dolphins swimming off the starboard side of the ship so we all ran outside to enjoy the show. That was pretty amazing! I didn’t even know that dolphins were found this far north.

Our last gathering was held shortly after the dolphin spotting. We all gathered to laugh about stories from the past 3 weeks at sea, dance, and even listen to some Russian music on the guitar performed by a crew member. It has been an amazing expedition with connections and friendships made from all over the world.

~Becki Legatt

Day 23
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Calmer seas and an Antarctic presentation

Much calmer seas today as we continue our journey back to Kirkines. It’s sad to look out the window and see waves instead of sea ice, but those arctic images will stay in my head for some time to come I’m sure. The sea sickness has passed on with the calming of the seas, so everyone is in good spirits today as people went around collecting photos and videos from everyone to share.

This afternoon many of us gathered for movies upstairs in between packing and working on other things in our cabins. After dinner I took a walk out on deck with my German friend and we laughed about fun moments during the cruise while enjoying the crisp evening. Both of us seem to really enjoy time at sea, especially when it’s in the Arctic. Later on we all gathered upstairs for another presentation by the ship’s radio officer, this time on his travels in Antarctica. His pictures were amazing and we all loved the penguins and seals so cute! I think that will continue to be my dream and goal to work on research there. Polar science is so exciting!

~Becki Legatt

Day 22
Friday, September 4, 2009
Rough seas as we head home

We were warned yesterday to make sure everything in our rooms was put away or secured with duct tape before heading off to bed, and during the early morning hours we discovered why. We left behind the polar ice pack around 6 AM and encountered quite rough seas. This led to a rough day for a few people on board that had some sea sickness with the ship rocking through the waves all day.

You know the seas are rough when while sitting down for a meal you see the ocean suddenly appear above the top of the window, showing only sea water, and then just as suddenly it sinking below the bottom of the window leaving only cloudy skies. The cups are now placed in crates for meals, and all of the condiments on the tables are tilted on their sides so they don’t roll around. It’s quite entertaining to walk around on the ship. I have found the stairwell to be quite entertaining! One moment you’re walking on air, and the next you’re being pushed sideways.

~Becki Legatt