CAATEX Expedition to the North Pole

Hanne Sagen1, Espen Storheim1, Florian Geyer1, Peter F. Worcester2, Agnieszka Beszczynska-Moeller3, Stein Sandven1, Andreas Kjøl4 and Nick Hughes5, (1)Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, Bergen, Norway, (2)Univ of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States, (3)Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences, Sopot, Poland, (4)Norwegian Coastal Administration, Norway, (5)Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Oslo, Norway
Abstract:
On the 21st of August the icebreaker KV Svalbard arrived the North Pole as the first Norwegian ship in support of the Coordinated Arctic Acoustic Thermometry Experiment (CAATEX). The scientific mission of the CAATEX expedition was to collect multi-disciplinary observations from the ocean, sea ice and the atmosphere. Four moorings, each 4 kilometer long and equipped with more than 50 acoustic and oceanographic instruments. Three acoustic moorings are part of an acoustic array of six moorings aiming to provide integrated mean ocean temperature across the whole Arctic Basin. These measurements will be compared to similar measurements in the 1990s to investigate if the heat content of the Arctic Ocean has changed over 25 years. The navigation through heavy ice conditions was possible due to extensive use of near real-time satellite remote sensing and weather forecasts. The experience from this expedition is important for future icebreaker operations in sea ice.
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