IARC/NPI Research Cruise onboard the Norwegian vessel Lance

October 1, 2004

In September 2004, International Arctic Research Center (IARC) scientist Dr. Vladimir Ivanov participated in a research cruise onboard the Norwegian research vessel Lance (Fig.1). As part of the NABOS/CABOS (Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational Systems/Canadian Basin Observation System) program, this cruise is an international collaboration by IARC and the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), and shares scientific research, ship time, and scientific equipment costs.

Dr. Ivanov is studying the physical oceanography of this part of the Arctic Ocean. On the 2004 cruise, one mooring was successfully deployed at the site selected by the researchers, as indicated in Fig. 2. They plan to retrieve the mooring during August of 2005. The mooring was lowered to the ocean floor at a target depth of approximately 1010 meters, with instruments attached at various depths to measure physical properties of the ocean, including water temperature, salinity and water current velocity in the area northeast of the Fram Strait. A diagram of a mooring configuration is available on the NABOS website at http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/NABOS/tech1.php.

The information acquired from this mooring will be used to compile historical data to track changes in the Arctic Ocean climate. The data also helps to explain what the researchers refer to as variations in thermohaline structure caused by local and advective processes. The term "thermohaline structure" generally means the horizontal and vertical distribution of temperature and salinity in ocean waters. Variations of thermohaline structure, heat, and salt distribution can be an indicator of climate change. "Advective processes" refer to the processes of motion, or transport, in ocean waters and includes large scale currents, eddies, ice drift and others. These processes are the opposite of effects that are localized, such as ice freezing and melting, ocean-air energy exchange, and convection.

The NABOS research cruise in the Laptev Sea onboard the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn also took place during September 2004. Research from the Lance cruise will complement data that is obtained from NABOS moorings and provide valuable comparisons about the physical properties of both waters, as well as information about water circulation in the entire basin (Fig. 3).