Real time reports on the state of the Arctic ice pack as it melts through the summer
The North Pole!
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At approximately 0030 UTC on July 24th we reached the North Pole. The ice here was shattered into Cake and Small pieces, occasionally Medium, with a very roughly 50/50 mixture of old and first year ice. Image below.
After visiting the Geographic North Pole itself very early on 24 July 2019 we sailed south in search of a good floe to make a landing on. We stopped at 89 10.8N, 49 37.3E and made a landing within the large massif of old and sediment-filled ice that we passed through the previous day and which we saw at the North Pole on the previous cruise. The thickness of ice at the landing site was seen to be 200-300cm (see image)
We took the opportunity to take a closer look at the ice, measuring depth profiles across three ponds (image attached). Within an area of thicker ice in a discrete turquoise pond we had depths of up to 50cm and a freeboard of 36cm. Darker ponds that were a part of a linked system of flatter ice had freeboards of 6-10cm and depth of up to 20cm.
This dirty ice is notable for having a greater coverage of melt ponds (up to 4/10, vs 1-3/10 seen elsewhere) than other ice seen at the same latitudes. We believe this may be due to albedo effect of the dirt -- in a few ponds ...
During the night of 12 July, between 84 and 87N, we encountered increasing quantities of old ice and the ship's speed reduced accordingly. Throughout today (13 July) we have been engaged with back-and-ramming as old ice has continued to be present and the first year ice has been thicker than yesterday. Throughout the day overall ice coverage has been 9-10/10.
Between 87 and 88.5N (always approximately along the 65E meridian) we have encountered First Year ice of 120cm thickness, very occasionally 140cm when close to 88N. Floes have been Medium-Large and there has been 2-3/10 melt coverage. Melt ponds have been open, some with thaw holes. Snowfall through today has accumulated on the surface of these ponds and gives the illusion that they have a frozen top. Ponds are linked in small groups of 2-3 ponds, but these groups have been discrete from each other. Unusually, several very large (30-60m by 30-40m) ponds have been seen.
Around 87N 1-4/10 of the ice was Multiyear or 2nd-y...
This morning at 0930 UTC+1 we arrived at the Geographic North Pole. During the night, north of 89N ice greater than 4m thick was reported but we did not observe this.
At the pole we had 10/10 coverage, of which 9/10+ was multiyear. This was heavily weathered and hummocked genuine multiyear and definitely not 2nd year ice. Thickness was not as great as expected and most was around 150cm thick.
Melt was 2/10, frequently-linked ponds with open tops and no thaw holes.
Interestingly, some of the old ice was very dirty as can been seen in the picture. This appeared to be dust/dirt and not algae, and it was clearly present through most of the thickness of the ice and not just on the surface.
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