Re: Fast Progress South
Hi Alex,
Thank you for the updates and the photos, they really help with interpreting what we see in the satellite images!
The Sentinel-1 satellite managed to get a picture of you heading south at 07:26 UTC yesterday (see attached). The freshly broken southbound track is clearly distinguishable from the faint northbound track. The melt is making seeing any features quite difficult, but we are picking smaller very dark patches that could either be ponds or openings, and some faint brighter traces of the ridging.
The older ice you're seeing explains the difficulties the new Norwegian research icebreaker Kronprins Haakon had a week or so back north of Svalbard. They're in dry-dock for repairs following their encounter with the multi-year ice.
Cheers,
Nick
________________________________________________________________________________
Nick Hughes Norwegian Ice Service
Leader of the Ice Service Forecasting Division for Northern Norway
nick.hughes@met.no Postal address:
Direct: +47 45 24 30 18 P.O. Box 6314, NO-9293 Tromsø, Norway
Fax: +47 77 62 13 01 Office address:
Skype: Polarnix Kirkegårdsv. 60
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On Fri, 26 Jul 2019 at 08:15, <victory@marsatmail.com> wrote:
An easy passage south afforded by following our own track through the ice allowed us to cover more than four degrees of latitude overnight. During the day of 25 July we traversed the 60E meridian from 85.2N to 83.5N.
We experienced relatively low concentrations of ice for the latitude in this region, sometimes as low as 8/10, with Wide Breaks frequent.
Old ice varied in partial concentration from 0-3/10 with a general decline in the concentration of old ice as we sailed south. Thickness of the old ice was approximately 150-200cm. In some places we saw a clear layering to this older ice that suggested an age of 2 years (pictured; note ruler is marked in 20cm intervals). These floes usually had a relatively flat and less-featured surface, supporting the idea that they might be 2 years old and not older, but they did have more topography than undeformed 1st year ice.
With some exceptions, the degree of melt was lower than seen on the way north and on the previous trip, with melt coverage of approximately 2/10 on first year ice. We saw some drained ponds and what appeared to be drained linked systems that had become discrete ponds, so this apparent decrease in melt pond concentration may be due to draining of ponds. Attached is an image of a very large area of flooding that is now draining.
At the north pole we saw some very thin frozen surfaces at pond edges, and we have also noticed during meteorological observations that the temperatures in the last few days have been lower than previously measured; we have measured temperatures between -1C and 1C the last 2-3 days, before this they were usually 1-2C. This temperature change could be linked to the apparent decrease in melt.
As we sailed below the 83rd parallel we saw thinner first year ice. While the majority was 90-110cm in thickness, some areas appeared much thinner and extremely rotten (pictured). When this was seen, it could make up as much as 2-3/10 of the first year ice.
On 26 July we expect to be cruising in Franz Josef Land.
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