Searching For Solid Ice As Scientists Freeze In To Study A Warming Arctic
A ship of researchers is crossing the Arctic for a year attached to an ice floe. But finding the right chunk of sea ice was a challenge, in part because warmer temperatures are making it thinner.
High up in the Arctic Ocean close to the North Pole, a solitary ship floats in darkness, moored to an expansive piece of ice.
If all goes according to plan the ship will remain with that ice for an entire year, so that scientists on board can study the Arctic system and how it's responding to climate change.
It's a project called the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC). But finding a piece of ice thick and stable enough to host the mission's science and logistics is not easy, and there may be challenges for the ice and the scientists in the months ahead.
In the Arctic ice north of Siberia, the Russian research vessel Akademik Fedorov is testing the thickness of an ice floe by
