Countdown To End Of Ice Survey Begins
07 May 2009
The Catlin Arctic Survey team has now been on the ice for 67 days.
They will be lifted off the ice in an air operation at some point in the next 10-15 days. As the Arctic Summer approaches the sea ice will begin to melt. NO specific date has been decided and the decision is taken based on advice from the pilots, detailed satellite imagery showing the conditions of the ice and the reports from our team on the ice.
The survey data accumulated will be available to scientists studying the complex issues around the disappearing floating ice and climate change.
Here are some more snapshots of the expedition’s mission, experiences and adventure:
- 11 days and running low on food….but a re-supply reaches the team at last
Pen Hadow, Martin Hartley and Ann Daniels were down to only a thousand calories a day while they waited for a re-supply flight that simply never seemed like it would arrive.
However, earlier this week, after 11 days, the flight did get in through a break in the bad weather to land with much needed food and other supplies. It was a tricky operation, but the team is now making its final push northwards and accumulating more survey data on the way. Follow more about this story at www.catlinarcticsurvey.com
- How the team is surveying the floating sea ice
At every survey point on the route Pen Hadow has been taking detailed measurements of the floating ice, physically drilling and taking readings for about four hours. He is measuring ice and snow thickness, the ‘freeboard’ depth of ice floating above the waterline and even snow temperature. In all there are 75 different reading to be taken every day. Read more about the surveying and early data results at – www.catlinarcticsurvey.com
- There’s no peace in the Arctic wilderness
“Every step I take across this icy wilderness is accompanied by a ‘squeak, squeak’ as my ski poles pierce the ice underfoot”, says Daniels, “but it’s natural sound that’s most unsettling. When it is quiet, the silence seems sinister but when you hear a sudden noise you experience an almost animalistic reaction. Your heart jumps, your head’s up, you’re thinking ‘where’s that noise’.
To the casual observer it may seem as though, for all its harshness, polar exploration is at least tranquil on the ears. The CAS team is after all more than 1000kms away from the nearest civilisation. But for navigator Ann Daniels, the sound of the Arctic is an often haunting part of the journey that stays with her long after she’s returned home.
- Talkin ‘bout the weather
They started in almost total darkness in the depths of a fiercely cold Arctic winter and, with virtually no pause for a sprint-time, are now bathed in near total daylight. Both extremes make sleep a challenge, but the strange conditions of Arctic expedition life make the British passion for weather the team’s dominant topic of conversation.
Tags: Ann Daniels, cas, Catlin Arctic Survey, Martin Hartley, Pen Hadow
