Sunday 7 and Monday 8 September 2008

We have sea birds back! And it's getting darker in the evenings! We sampled; we packed around the sampling; we had a very nice formal dinner with long white table cloths, candles and a delicious menu; we went back to sampling and/or packing. And the protection of the ice disappeared! The winds have picked up and Monday's ride has been more "active", with wind speeds of 11-12 m/s (=22-24 knots). All our boxes are packed, labelled with address and packing list, soon to be strapped close. Most boxes are staying on Oden and will be picked up between Sept. 22-24 in Landskrona, Sweden to be then shipped to their respective destination. A few of us are carrying boxes with us because of another cruise coming soon (Andy, Carlton and Paty) ( we have 12 boxes, including 2 coolers to bring in the plane), because of unique frozen samples (Monica) or because they live in Norway and they are close to home (Sara de la Rosa and Anders Sirevaag, U. Bergen, Norway)!

Tomorrow morning we are expected to arrive in Longyearben at 0600 local time. We should arrive at the entrance of the fjord today after 2200. About half of the people of the 64 people on board will fly home tomorrow. Several of the scientists and the crew fly home on Wednesday, including us.

ASCOS has been a very successful expedition! It has been an incredible personal and scientific adventure. Next, come many months of data control and analysis, meetings, and discussions until our many papers are published in scientific journals.

Thank you to our family, friends, colleagues and funsding agenciea who have made it possible for us to be here.
Paty, Monica, Carlton, Andy, and Johan AND the rest of the ASCOS team

Saturday 6 September 2008

Our ice breaking has been very successful, SO successful that we are now 30h ahead of schedule! Thus, we have decided to sample the marginal ice zone for 18h and the adjacent open water for another 12h. This will provide a unique sequence to our early August sampling, followed by our pack ice sampling up to freeze up, now followed by a fall sampling of the same waters. This additional sampling opportunity also implies that we won't be packing until Sunday and Monday!

Wednesday 3 September 2008

At 1005, we are at 85o 59.62N 06o 59.11E. We spent most of yesterday sailing east and some sailing south. The ice is thicker and all leads are frozen over. Many now have "gardens of frost flowers" now, which Paty really wanted to sample prior to departure; unfortunately, they were not within sampling reach at the lead. Frost flowers are crystalline structures that appear on the surface of newly formed sea ice once it achieves a certain thickness and a certain cold temperature. Oden is advancing at speeds that range from -0.1 knots (moving backwards to break ice) to 8 knots, with an average of approx. 4 knots, except when it does not move. How does icebreaker Oden loosen itself from the grip of the ice? Very briefly, the ship has several large tanks on either side of the ship, filled with several hundreds of liters of water which it can move from port to starboard (left to right) and back very quickly, thus creating just enough space to then move forwards or backwards. It also has a 3rd tank in a different location for the same purpose. In addition, it has 2 side thrusters (engines that provide lateral motion) as well as a water system under the bow that lubricates the sea ice in front of it, so Oden can slide over it and crush it with its weight and forward motion. Indeed, for the past 2 years, Oden has been contracted by the US National Science Foundation to open the channel to McMurdo, in Antarctica, at the end of the austral winter, something that the Oden officers and crew are quite proud of. Thus, a month after returning to Sweden from this Arctic Ocean expedition, Oden will sail south to Punta Arenas, Chile and then on to the Antarctic shelf.
Catherine skiing.JPG
sara-monica-andy-monica-chrisantemum.JPG

Tuesday 2 September 2008

At 10:31, we are on our way home; we are currently headed east at 4-8knots, depending on the ice encountered. We left at midnight on Sept. 1 from 87o 07.8N 10o 39.84W and we are not at 86o 53.53N 01o 33.90W. We celebrated the end of a successful ASCOS campaign with both a burst of atmospheric nucleation and a glass of champagne. Some celebrated through the night, as some groups have finished their work for this expedition. Packing comes next. Not yet for us since we have many samples (already collected) still left to analyze, whether in the gas chromatograph or with the microscope-camera system.

This evening, every one but officer Thomas Stromsnas (at the helm), will celebrate with a traditional, mid-summer crayfish and schnapz dinner at 1900. A seemingly boundless pile of crayfish and shrimp (as well as a few quiches for the non-seafood eaters) and assorted sauces were available to all, accompanied by many Swedish drinking songs. It is quite an experience for those living through it for the first time. Otherwise, it is quite delicious. As we are running an experiment, Carlton and Monica have been trading sampling every 6h; thus, one will stay till midnight and the other will get up before 0600. This clearly requires different bed times for all.

Sunday 31 August 2008

We woke up to a spectacularly clear day; we can see the sun bright and yellow in the sky. We have shadows. At 0900, it was only -4C. However, the lead is frozen over with new, clear sea ice that does not seem to be there in certain places. Many people tried to go for a ski or a walk but the fog would roll in and out. Fog = no walk! Fog and/or clouds= fog and cloud water (both being very difficult to obtain)! Frozen lead= no samples? Ah! We broke the ice to sample subsurface water and brought a bucket of new sea ice to sample (once it melts inside the fridge). At 1800, the air temperature started to decrease and, by 21:00, it reached -9C to -10C (14-16F) where it has stayed until now, at midnight. At 00:25 of Monday, the sky is still blue, bright and crisp; the ice and snow reflect the sunlight making everything even brighter. We are at 87o 10.33N, 010o 07.59W.
We had a very nice Sunday night dinner, duck breast, scalloped-creamy potatoes, salad and ice cream for desert. We are supposed to dress up for Sunday dinner; some do, some don't. Then it is back to the lab to finish filtering (carlton), run samples in the gas chromatograph (Andy), continue running experiments and photographing with the microscope (Paty and Monica), move equipment and boxes from lead to ship (Johan) while Qiu Ju (= Chrysanthemum) Gao (U Stockholm; C. Leck's graduate student) (our tireless lab mate) filters and filters 100's of liter of seawater.
Till Tuesday, as today- Monday- is our last sampling day!