[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/7191\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EA day on the Polarstern: studying climate change up close \u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe\u2019re on a big research icebreaker, which is doing something unusual \u2013 it is not moving. (Currently) we are at around 87 (degrees) north, and (about) 95 (degrees) east, drifting northwest.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe crew is maintaining the ship, which is a big hostel-workshop, and we (scientists) are most of the time out on the ice doing snow and ice research, (at least) in my group (where I\u2019m the current ice team lead).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe arrived on December 15th and are carrying on with the research the people before us did.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere is always the same ice around us, (but) it can suddenly break up. It is like it\u0027s growing into a garden. And we want to measure and understand everything, so we are very busy going into our garden and digging in snow and ice. It\u0027s very exciting. It\u2019s very beautiful.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe all have to have headlamps because it\u0027s the polar night. There will be no sunlight until mid-February. The first 100 or so metres are illuminated by the ship lights. But we had a full moon recently and everything was illuminated.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E(As scientists) we\u0027re try to understand how our planet works mainly by using numerical models and satellite images from space. With these, we can cover almost the whole planet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd if we really want to see what there is, if we really want to \u2018touch\u2019 our planet, we have to come here and see if what we calculated, and what we see from space, is real.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe have to come home with enough data so that over the next few years, or decade, we can better understand how to improve our climate models and what we\u0027re actually seeing from space.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI spend most of the working day on the ice. First, I get up and have breakfast. We have all kinds of breads and spreads and they make us pancakes every now and then.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt half past 8 we have a briefing. Then we go on the ice. We do something different every day. Lunch is at half past 11. The mess room is so small that we have to eat in shifts. But it\u0027s never a big problem. I\u0027m late for breakfast, early for lunch. Then we continue with work on the ice at 1 o\u0027clock. In the afternoon, we spend four hours on the ice.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018We all have to have headlamps because it\u0026#039;s the polar night. There will be no sunlight until mid-February.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Polona Itkin, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Troms\u00f8\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E(The temperature) is around minus 30\u00b0C, but with the wind it can quickly get below minus 45\u00b0C wind chill. We have to keep our faces completely covered or out of the wind. If you look into the wind, you can get frostbite.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EToday my team went ice coring, which means drilling, taking samples of ice. We will measure how salty the ice is and how big the crystals are, the ice temperature and so on. Biologists will check how much algae live inside and chemists will check how much nutrients, methane and other gases there are. So that\u0027s what we\u0027re doing today. We\u0027re also taking snow samples in snow pits. We\u0027re a big team, 15 people, and do a lot of things at the same time. Altogether I think we are about 100 people (63 scientists and 33 crew members) on board right now.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis morning I put data measured (over) the previous days into central storage and in the afternoon, I will be bear-guarding the snow pit team. So I\u0027ll go out with the gun and I\u0027ll be on lookout keeping everybody safe so that they can take snow samples.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe saw one (polar bear) yesterday. It was the first one we had seen this month and was very well behaved. It just looked at our equipment, didn\u0027t damage anything and walked away.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe bears usually don\u0027t attack. They\u0027re very curious. Our task is to scare them away. We really don\u2019t want to shoot any bears.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E(After the four hours) we return for dinner. We are starving by half five. Then we have an evening meeting to figure out what we\u0027re doing next day.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat we have discovered so far, which is something really new, is how salt from ice gets into snow. We knew that snow can be very salty, but now we have pictures of pockets of brine water in snow.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis is important for how snow looks from space. It means that it looks more similar to sea ice.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe might think that the ice is getting thicker where, in reality, there\u0027s just more (salty) snow on it. Then we have an error in estimates.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt is very impressive to see how fast things can change. You can\u0027t take any of this landscape in our garden for granted. You can wake up in the morning and your measurement installation is ruined or it\u0027s laying on the floor because the ice moved and the cables snapped.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe environment is very fragile. And we see this. We want to observe pristine nature and just by walking or using a snow machine we can see how easily the ice is compacted.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022 class=\u0022@alignleft@\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022Dr Polona Itkin on polar bear lookout on 20 January while her team takes snow samples. Image credit - Alfred Wegener Institute \/ Folke Mehrtens\u0022 height=\u0022500\u0022 src=\u0022\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/IMCEUpload\/polarsten-sm_0.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022Dr Polona Itkin on polar bear lookout on 20 January while her team takes snow samples. Image credit - Alfred Wegener Institute \/ Folke Mehrtens\u0022 width=\u0022750\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022tw-italic tw-mb-4\u0022\u003EDr Polona Itkin on polar bear lookout on 20 January while her team takes snow samples. Image credit - Alfred Wegener Institute \/ Folke Mehrtens\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat is one of the challenges of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mosaic-expedition.org\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EMOSAiC\u003C\/a\u003E (the year-long expedition). We\u2019re doing our best to do our work and preserve the environment. (When) we leave, we\u2019re taking everything (all of our equipment) with us.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESome new pressure ridges formed recently, which means that there is ice sticking out like new trees. These have some colour; they\u2019re not just white. If illuminated, they\u2019re blue. But with the moonlight and the headlamps, they\u2019re a bit grey or even green.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne ridge grew an average of three metres at night. We would like to know how fast it will freeze and then in the summer, how fast it will melt.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe have hundreds of ridges from helicopter observations and thousands of ridges captured by satellite images. By studying more than one ridge (in detail) \u2013 we now (have) two of them \u2013 we can (make) estimates (about) thousands of ridges and then we will be able to tell if the freezing and the melting of these ridges is important and has to be included in the climate models. Right now, it\u2019s not in there.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/arice.eu\/call-results\/2018#dearice-prv-polarstern-in-the-frame-of-mosaic-central-arctic\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EDEARice\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(the project I\u2019m working on) is mainly about how to bring very small-scale measurements like a 9cm-wide ice core towards (the) bigger scale in the numerical model. We are really into bridging this scale so that we can make our little observations useful for everybody and for generations to come.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe next team is supposed to arrive around the 15th of February. We are getting ready for that. We have to be able to let them know exactly what we did and how they should continue.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe work 12 hours a day. Some people more. It\u2019s very exhausting, but we are so inspired we just do it. It\u2019s crazy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBesides all this, it\u0027s a huge personal experience. We have this opportunity to watch and learn.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStanding out there in the wind at 10m per second and seeing how the snow drifts from one space and piles up to form a beautiful snow dune or a sastrugi (wave-like formation) right in front of our eyes \u2013 that\u0027s a really special experience. It\u2019s not often that you can stand there and watch this happening.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAs told to Annette Ekin.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EIf you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022moreinfoblock\u0022\u003E\n \u003Ch3\u003EMOSAiC: the Arctic drift expedition\u003C\/h3\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mosaic-expedition.org\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EMOSAiC\u003C\/a\u003E is a year-long scientific research experiment \u2013 and the largest-ever polar expedition of its kind \u2013 where the German icebreaker RV Polarstern will stay trapped in Arctic sea ice, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mosaic-expedition.org\/expedition\/mosaic-in-numbers\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003Edrifting about 7km a day\u003C\/a\u003E. With the Arctic system a crucial testbed for our understanding of climate change, it aims to foster critical insights and a leap forward into what we know about global warming. About 600 experts and scientists from about 20 countries will rotate on and off the ship throughout the year to peer closely at the transformations happening on the ground in the Arctic. These results will feed into better climate predictions and inform adaptation and mitigation policies. MOSAiC is spearheaded by the Alfred Wegener Institute, the Helmholt Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany. The Polarstern set sail in September 2019.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__https:\/arice.eu\/call-results\/2018*dearice-prv-polarstern-in-the-frame-of-mosaic-central-arctic__;Iw!!DOxrgLBm!Q0UO8rFl6P_gxSkxZWMyIIvhxWKDBhhOcUjsa-MuAddSTp3hFN_SQiQfI-HUrTWsYaLoCo2Y$\u0022\u003EDEARice\u003C\/a\u003E, which is developing snow, ice and ecosystem models from Arctic observations from winter to summer, was selected by the EU-funded project\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/730965\u0022\u003EARICE\u003C\/a\u003E to join the expedition. 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