RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

IARC Summer School during the NABOS 2005 Expedition onboard the icebreaker "Kapitan Dranitsyn"

October 15, 2005

It has been reported widely that the climate in the Arctic is changing rapidly, maybe even faster there than the rest of the globe, and that northern sea ice is shrinking, especially in the coastal seas of the Russian Arctic, such as the Laptev Sea. The International Arctic Research Center has been doing observations in this crucial area during the last several years through a project called NABOS (Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observation System), which is primarily funded by NSF, NOAA, and JAMSTEC.

This year the NABOS expedition was conducted in parallel with the IARC Summer School onboard the icebreaker "Kapitan Dranitsyn." The ship left Murmansk on September 5th, 2005 with the Russian participants onboard and the next day all other international students/expedition members from 10 different countries joined in Kirkenes, Norway. The ship then sailed northeast to the north of Novaya Zemlya and further to Severnaya Zemlya to the area of the field program.

Twenty-four students out of about 140 summer school applicants were selected. Seven were from the USA, 5 were from from Russia, 5 were from from Canada, 2 were from Norway, and 1 each were Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France and Sweden. Vladimir Alexeev of IARC served as the director of the School and Louis Fortier of Laval University was a co-director.

Thirteen instructors taught during the summer school. Most of the instructors were involved in the field program as well. Lectures onboard included a wide variety of subjects, from simple climate models to micro- and astrobiology and marine isotope analysis. Overview lectures by R.Barry and G.Alekseev on the history of Arctic exploration were very well attended and brought a lot of interest. General discussions on various problems of Arctic research also ensued. The IPY (International Polar Year) planning was one of the most exciting and well-discussed topics during these informal meetings.

In addition to traditional lectures/seminars the students aboard the icebreaker had a unique chance to experience arctic exploration and acquire invaluable skills in oceanographic fieldwork under harsh arctic conditions, and to gain a better understanding of how scientific observations are organized in practice. Students learned first-hand about oceanographic, biochemical, ice, and meteorological observations in the dynamically rich area of the Arctic. Working with the international team of experienced polar researchers provided them an excellent opportunity to learn more about modern methods of high- latitude observations and analysis, and to personally participate in the study of the fast- changing Arctic environment.

Each student was given an opportunity to present his/her master, Ph.D or postdoc project. All of the students were assigned to projects related to some part of the field measurements program or other theme offered by the instructors. The students would sit long hours in the lounge doing the projects and interacting with the instructors. The final presentations proved to be a great success. Some of the students may have collected enough results for a refereed article.

The summer school helped both instructors and students find new professional and personal contacts. Facilities onboard and friendly service of the Murmansk Shipping Company, represented by Nikolay Rumyantsev, provided participants with everything needed for a pleasant and successful cruise.

The Summer School was supported by several sources - the NSF (through IARC), NOAA (all USA), ArcticNet - Network for Centers of Excellence (Canada), the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Academy of Science, the Ministry of Science (all Russia) and JAMSTEC (Japan). The main organizers included IARC (UAF, USA), Laval University (Canada), Institute for Atmospheric Physics (Moscow, Russia) and the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (St.Petersburg, Russia).