Historic Arctic Expedition

Today, I would like to tell readers about a historic Arctic expedition that has been featured several times in “The Washington Post”.

According to The Washington Post, “The Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) is the largest Arctic research project in history and one of humanity’s greatest efforts to understand how melting at the pole will affect the rest of the planet.” (September 21, 2019)

Led by Germany’s “Alfred Wegener Institute,” approximately 300 scientists from diverse fields at 60 institutions across 17 countries have come together to live in the Arctic from this fall through next summer, collecting data on water, ice, glaciers, air, and all the flora and fauna that inhabit the region (data collection). This project, costing $134 million and the result of 10 years of effort, is finally getting underway. Just hearing about it makes my heart race.

The goal of this project is to live in the Arctic for one year (traveling across the Arctic alongside the ice sheets) to collect data on the Arctic's impact on global warming. By studying changes over the course of a year, the project aims to gather data on “how Arctic melting affects global climate change” and, furthermore, to improve research models.

First and foremost, setting up the base station was the biggest challenge. We couldn’t cross the Russian border, and the site had to be within rescue range in case of an emergency. On top of that, the ice was becoming increasingly weak and thin, making it no easy task to find a suitable location. Due to global warming, by September, there was no thick ice sheet strong enough to support the base station. Finally, on September 28, we managed—though not perfectly—to find an ice sheet large enough to support a 1.5-mile-diameter base camp. This is a serious matter. For the third consecutive year, September has seen the lowest ice sheet coverage on record.

We barely managed to find a sturdy ice sheet, anchored the ship, and set up the base station. It’s winter now, so we’re setting it up on solid ice and will be able to leave next summer when the ice melts. Faced with this delay, the scientists were in a hurry. There are six months of continuous night. The scientists are organized into teams: one team works for two months, then the next team takes over for two months, and so on in a relay-style rotation.

Since this is a multidisciplinary project, scientists from various fields have gathered here—oceanographers, geophysicists, meteorologists, biologists, and more. Therefore, each research team must build its own “city” on the ice. Access to these cities is restricted to wooden boardwalks, ensuring that one team’s activities do not interfere with another’s research (data contamination). The sky, the sea, the air, and all living plants and animals are subjects of study, and the data will be collected as big data, first shared with MOSAiC collaborators, and then made available to scientists worldwide. In particular, this research will help address the impact on Earth of increasing gas emissions from Arctic microorganisms—a phenomenon scientists currently fear as the ice melts.

I wholeheartedly cheer on their efforts.

12/29/2019 by Dr. Lan Joo