87o 28.58N 09o 21.0W; air temperature -0.7C; low winds <2m/s; drifting south at 0.1 knots, cloudy, foggy (what's new about this! Welcome to Arctic Ocean summer weather!)
The seawater and the under side of the sea ice is today filled with clumps and strings of the ice diatom Melosira arctica which look a healthy greenish brown and beautiful under the microscope. Diatoms are pill-box shaped, with the cell located inside the silica (= glass)-made box, with the boxes attached to each other forming long chains. In this case, the chains of cells also have a covering of mucus. This mucus may be what is clogging our filters today.
While Monica and Paty have been doing experiments in the lab on board Oden, Carlton, Gao, Andreas, and Fred have gone to sample the lead. The lead group usually stays out for 4h, with another hour used in transportation to and from the lead and Oden. Andy and Carlton are now driving the snow mobiles. While this is not new for Mainer Carlton, it is a first for Andy; it is the first time in the Arctic Ocean, this close to the North Pole. This is to the great envy of other cruise participants who feel "stuck" inside the ship. One of the main activities at the lead is the exchange of 12V car batteries that provide power for the 2 systems that run continuously (the Canadian OOTI for atmospheric ozone and bromine oxide and a flux system as well as the 3 systems dedicated to bubble images and bubbling flux experiments. We move approximately 13 batteries by snowmobile every day; they are charged on board the ship around the clock.
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