To accomplish this feat, some scientists flew by helicopter to smaller ice floes surrounding the ship for deploying instrumentation, while other ship-based operations deployed snowmobiles and sleds onto the sea ice to transport people and instruments to the deployment sites closer to the ship.
I deployed seasonal ice mass balance buoys on ice floes that were visited by the ship. The captain would pull the ship up to the side of an ice floe so scientists could access the ice by the gangplank. Once on the ice, I would either walk to the deployment site or catch a ride on the snowmobile. Being out on the sea ice and observing the vast stretches of white in all directions was amazing and unlike anything else I have experienced.
Although living on the ship felt crowded at times, it was really interesting meeting new people from all around the world that are passionate about and committed to their research. There was rarely a dull moment with all the action going on outside the ship as well! We were lucky enough to witness multiple sightings of polar bears, different varieties of sea ice, northern lights and bioluminescence while traveling through the Arctic.
Traveling to and around the Arctic in icebreakers and large research vessels is necessary because the sea ice thickness can cause a great barrier to Arctic research. The sea ice that we experienced in the Arctic was surprisingly thin. It was only about half as thick as scientists were expecting!
