Citizen Science at the North Pole
Measuring melt pond sizes, depths and salinities at the North Pole with our team of citizen scientists. The trip was fantastic and we had an excellent core group of ice observers. Now we are gearing up for the next one!
I’ve just returned from two weeks of breaking ice in the Arctic Ocean. Icebreaking is incredible, helicopters are amazing and we learned a huge amount about observing sea ice and recording data about it.
Polar explorer Roald Amundsen’s house outside of Oslo, Norway.
I’m in Norway with Lauren. Today we visited the Fram museum and Roald Amundsen’s house. Heading north for the North Pole
Our project to collect sea ice data in the Arctic Ocean this summer (http://ift.tt/1fhaoiZ) has been awarded the right to carry the Explorers Club flag.
Club flags have been carried to both poles, the summit of Everest and the bottom of the Marianas Trench. They’ve been carried into space, on the surface of the Moon and famously at the top of the mast on Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki.
The flag you are awarded may have been on many expeditions before, and so it is more than just an honour, it is a reminder that we are standing on the shoulders of giants, following in the Western traditions of scientific enquiry and building on the work of those that went before us.
Without traditions we are always starting from scratch and we can never aim nearly as high.
Our project (http://ift.tt/1fhaoiZ) to measure sea ice thickness in the Arctic Ocean this summer has been honoured by the award of an Explorers Club flag. Club flags have been carried to both poles, to the summit of Everest and to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Thor Heyerdahl proudly flew one from the mast of Kon Tiki, having planned the trip at the club’s NYC headquarters and they’ve been carried into space and on the surface of the moon.
It’s a great honour for our project to be recognised in this way, and given the flag may have been on many expeditions in the past it is a reminder that the work we do builds on the work of those that have gone before, following in the western tradition of scientific enquiry and standing on the shoulders of giants. Without traditions we are always starting from scratch.
Expedition Journal
Notes from the field, written by torchlight in icy tents with a soundtrack of wind and spindrift against the nylon.
