Friday 15 August 2008, 2300 GMT

We are at 87o 28.62N 06o 05.97W. It is very foggy, enough that all evening sampling on ice was cancelled. We were on our way to the lead to set up OOTI, a sled with sensors designed to measure atmospheric concentrations of ozone and bromine oxide sent by Dr. Jan Bottenheim (Environment Canada) and operated on board by Rachel Chang (U Toronto), when the group was told to return to Oden. OOTI's first day shall be tomorrow. Safety and polar bears (see the picture of the bear at the lead taken by Sven Lidstrom) are very prominent in every body's mind.

There also is an aircraft component to this project: the NASA DC-8 flew over us twice this morning. It is flying all the way from northern Sweden; it is a 10h flight here and back. Research on the aircraft focuses on radiation and clouds (Dr. Ola Persson, U Colorado) and aerosols (Dr. Barbara Brooks, U Leeds). Plus, we have our own helicopter on Oden for both atmospheric science missions and logistical efforts (transport of people and equipment, bear scaring, ice reconnaissance).

Our focus is to understand how clouds are formed in the high Arctic Ocean in the summer. Aerosols (that is particles in the air) contain organic material which we believe result from biological activity in the surface seawater. We will be measuring this biological activity in several ways both in the skin (=surface microlayer) between the air and the water as well as in the water just below this skin (= subsurface water). Phytoplankton and ice algae are the primary producers of this organic material and we've collected them in our filters and observed them under the microscope here.