Farewell to 50 let Pobedy and to ice breaking…on to Svalbard and...

Farewell to 50 let Pobedy and to ice breaking…on to Svalbard and adventures steadily further south. I’ll miss the ice but looking forward to more bears, walrus and far north eastern esoterica!

Back from my third North Pole commute this summer. Some glorious...

Back from my third North Pole commute this summer. Some glorious weather and helicopter rides and data collection has carried on fantastically.

Citizen Science at the North Pole Measuring melt pond sizes,...

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!

Measuring melt pond salinity and depth profile at the North...

Data Collection at the North PoleMy first time ever to the North...

Data Collection at the North Pole

My first time ever to the North Pole and the weather was gorgeous! It took several hours of searching with the helicopter to find a suitable spot a few miles from the pole itself, and Lauren had the luck to be along for the hour-long ride.

After enjoying the sunshine and scenery we get down to work, measuring the dimensions and salinity of two ponds. This all went surprisingly well for a first attempt and we learned enough to know what we want to measure next time and how we will include guests in the process.

Sailing to the North Pole is an expedition cruise like no other. It was a special experience, more so than I expected, and I’m really happy that the science went well too! I’ll be back three more times this summer and I can’t wait.

Is this the coolest watch in the world?The Omega Speedmaster,...

Photo from http://ift.tt/10dDBfr

Is this the coolest watch in the world?

The Omega Speedmaster, first produced in 1957, is the only watch certified by NASA for Extra-Vehicular Activity and was the first watch worn on the Moon. It wasn’t just an ornament; for example, on Apollo 13 Jack Swigert’s Speedmaster was used to time the critical 14-second Mid-Course Correction that allowed for a safe return to Earth.

Not only was it worn on the Gemini and Apollo programs, but in 1968 Ralph Plaisted led the first team to make a surface traverse to the North Pole (unless you believe either Peary or Cook). And the timepiece they used for celestial navigation? The Omega Speedmaster.

If ever I have several grand to burn on a watch, this is it.

While breaking ice this summer we will be recording sea ice...

While breaking ice this summer we will be recording sea ice thickness and extent, and melt pond distribution, depth and salinity. We’ll be providing these data to a number of scientific institutions in the United States, and it’s really exciting to be part of a ‘citizen science’ project.

Check out the video, and if you’re really interested in helping then go to:

http://bit.ly/2015ArcticOcean.

Well, Canada is behind me. Time to prepare for the next...

Well, Canada is behind me. Time to prepare for the next project…this summer I will be travelling to the North Pole four times aboard 50 let Pobedy (50 Years of Victory), a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker.

I’ll be working as geology lecturer and expedition staff, guiding excited and adventurous travellers, but I will also be collecting sea ice data in an ambitious project

Thanks to Lauren Farmer (if you don’t follow her yet you should) for the photos of the icebreaker; she’ll be there with me on her second contract aboard the ship, and has been organising and putting the whole data collection project together while I have been away in Antarctica and Canada.

If you’re interested in the data collection project then I’ll be posting more here shortly with ways you can get involved. Stay tuned!