The sea ice around the North Pole is getting smaller and thinner as the climate gets warmer. The area has decreased by around 40 percent since the 1980s, and is smaller in summer than in 1,000 years.
Even during this winter, there has been unusually little ice in the Arctic. So the scientists on the icebreaker Oden, who are now embarking on an unusually early expedition, do not know exactly what lies ahead and whether they will be able to go where they want in search of “atmospheric rivers”. They must follow the weather forecast and zigzag through the area.
– It has not happened before, no one has tested it. There are several difficulties. First, the forecast must be correct and this may not always be the case. And secondly, we have to be able to get where we need to, and that might not be possible depending on how far it is and how the ice is. So we don’t know, but we think it will work, says Michael Tjernström, who is a climate scientist at Stockholm University and expedition leader.
Oden must seek out the currents of warm and moist air that come in from the south. Then the researchers can make measurements that can provide answers to what the so-called atmospheric rivers mean for the melting of the ice and how quickly spring can come. The researchers suspect that it is these currents that kick-start the melting and make winter tip over into summer.
You can see how it works and more about the thawing Arctic in the video.
