Many colleagues and I will then get onto Polarstern, with a fresh set of supplies, a full fuel tank, and loads of enthusiasm to head back into the Arctic ice to continue our expedition.
When I last left the Arctic, back in January, it was totally dark. All day long it was dark. But now the sun is out for 24 hours a day, you can watch it simply circle around the sky. That is, of course, unless there are clouds. And there are so many clouds right now. It is an exciting time of year in the Arctic. It is a time when those clouds overhead, which serve as blankets for the surface, combine with the warming heat from the sun to cause the surface to melt. Out here the Arctic Ocean is covered with sea ice, and on top of that ice is snow. When the temperatures start to warm as summer approaches, the snow melts and forms ponds. Those ponds grow bigger as the surrounding ice also starts to melt, and as far as the eye can see the surface becomes dotted with tons of ponds. Eventually some of those ponds melt all the way through and the sea ice starts to look like Swiss cheese. We are here to study these transitions in the ice, to understand how they happen, and to figure out if they change the ocean ecosystem or the breakability of the ice. These last days have been so exciting out here, as the temperatures start to approach that melting point.
We are now about two-thirds of the way through our MOSAiC year in the Arctic. What an adventure it has been. Our ship has been anchored to the ice, and just drifting up near the North Pole. So far this year the winds have been very strong and consistent, blowing the ice and our ship across the Arctic faster than we planned. All of that wind has also made the ice break up more than expected.
