Chalmers University of Technology

The Arctic is warming significantly faster than the global average, making the region a key environment for research into the future climate. The expedition takes place during late summer, when Arctic sea ice approaches its annual minimum extent following the summer melt season. This period provides a unique opportunity to study how sea ice responds to changing environmental conditions and to investigate the interactions between the ocean, sea ice and atmosphere when the ice cover is at its most vulnerable.

The current expedition is the second in a series of three planned missions involving researchers and research vessels from Canada and Sweden. The Canadian icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent is primarily focused on seabed mapping. To ensure the best possible survey conditions, the Swedish icebreaker Oden will break a path through the ice ahead of the Canadian vessel. At the same time, researchers on board Oden will carry out a wide range of scientific measurements and observations.

The expedition consists of six scientific work packages, with Chalmers researchers participating in three of them:

The work package on sea ice properties is led by Leif Eriksson at the Division of Geoscience and Remote Sensing at Chalmers, who emphasises that the Early Career Researchers themselves have shaped much of the scientific programme.

“Each work package has its scientific focus, but it is the early career researchers who have defined what they want to do. They have written proposals describing their research and why they want to join the expedition. That means there are more scientific questions and a broader scope than in a normal scientific expedition,” says Leif.

Researchers in his work package will investigate questions such as: What does the surface of sea ice look like? How do pressure ridges form? How do waves interact with sea ice? How is energy transported between the ocean and the atmosphere? The overall aim is to improve our understanding of changes in sea ice and to validate satellite observations.

Three early career researchers from Chalmers participate in the expedition: Cornelius Quigley, postdoctoral researcher at the Division of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Department of Environment and Energy Sciences; Faustine Mascaut, postdoctoral researcher at Onsala Space Observatory, Department of Physics and Astronomy; and Julia Iwan, PhD student at Water Environment Technology, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering.

The research proposals of Faustine and Julia were selected for the Early Career Research Programme and Cornelius participate in a project funded by the Swedish National Space Agency where Chalmers and the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat will improve the use of satellite data for safer and more resource-efficient ship transport and research expeditions in ice-covered waters.