All of these factors had to be incorporated into the design of our structure, which we named the Atmosphere Surface Flux Stations (ASFS).
Next challenge: How are we going to get all of our ASFS sleds, instruments, computers, gear, and tools to the Arctic? The solution? We obtained three sea-containers (these look like semi-trucks), and after careful packing, each container ended up weighing between 10,000 and 17,000 pounds! Packing these containers was like a game of Tetris, expert level!
Now that everything was packed, it was time to get these containers up to the Arctic. We ended up hiring a large crane to come and lift each container onto its own flatbed trailer, which made them look even more like semi-trucks. The trailers were driven to New Jersey, where they would be loaded onto a barge, which is a really big ship that transports goods across the ocean. Finally our equipment made it to Norway, where the MOSAiC icebreakers were docked. After a few calls to customs to make sure that all of our equipment had the proper documentation, our containers were loaded onto the front of the icebreakers using the ship’s cranes.
After all of our equipment was safe and sound onboard, the icebreakers chugged out to the Arctic to start the expedition. Our gear was successfully deployed onto the ice, and all of our ASFS sleds and instruments worked! Yay!
It was now time to shift logistical efforts to figuring out how we were going to get our Atmosphere Team scientists to and from the icebreaker that was now frozen in ice in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. MOSAiC was broken into six different rotations (legs) of scientists that would come to and from the icebreaker via other icebreakers.
