Blogs and Blog Posts

Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 5.4

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD -
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 60, Last Ice

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Our ship now sways side to side.
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 59

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - We have a new mission now...
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 58

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - The big move-in today. 
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 57

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - As with last time, it again felt like an invasion. 
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 56

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Another of those fantastic Arctic moments last night. 
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 5.3

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD -
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 5.2

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD -
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 5.1

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD -
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 55

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - With still some days until the Akademik Tryoshnikov gets here, we’ve been trying to...
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 5.0

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD -
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 54

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Lianna Nixon is onboard here, representing our Colorado/CIRES team.
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 53

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Kaput is the right word for the moment. 
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 52

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - All along we have known that once there was swell in the area, the floe could fall apart at any time.
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 51

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Yesterday the decision was made to start taking down the major infrastructures on the ice.
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 50

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - We are just spinning in circles around here.
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A Dispatch from MOSAiC Leg 4 #2

Emelia Chamberlain, Scripps Institution of Oceanography - After 64 days at sea...
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 49

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - I’ve done the Transect a couple of times now.
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 4.8

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD -
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 48

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - The GFS [a U.S. national weather model] is crushing it out here in the Arctic.
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 47

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - It’s getting hard to keep track as there have been so many bears lately. 
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 46

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - We are about half way through our leg of MOSAiC.
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 45

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Today is not Sunday. Nor was yesterday.
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 4.7

Byron Blomquiston Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD -
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 44

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - With a short weather window...
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 43

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - It’s so great to see so many eager scientists out here. 
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 42

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Ice is the main character in this MOSAiC story.
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Postcards from a (Formerly) Frozen Icebreaker - Part 41

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - The ice surface becomes dirtier every day out here. 
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 4.6

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD -
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Part 40

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Another day of intense sun and this changes the surface in dramatic ways. 
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Part 39

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - There are these beautiful days out over the Arctic ice.
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Part 38

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Our big event today was raising the met tower...
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Part 37

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - The ice around us, at least on the Fortress, is filthy.
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Part 36

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Wow, it has been intense out.
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 4.5

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD -
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Part 35

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - We ran into the floe. Directly. 
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Part 34

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Today we parked against the MOSAiC floe...
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Part 33

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - It's been a 7-week journey to this point...
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Notes from the Field: Into the Ice

Melinda Webster, Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks - Our first night aboard Polarstern was a pleasant one...
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Part 32

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - I saw our flux station today...
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Part 31

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - After a few days of great progress...
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 4.4

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD -
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 4.3

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD -
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A Dispatch from MOSAiC Leg 4

Emelia Chamberlain, Scripps Institution of Oceanography - Operating an international expedition...
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Gina Jozef's Blog: Looking Back

Gina Jozef - When I left for Tromsø on January 22, I thought I would be gone for no more than 2.5 months...
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 4.2

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD - Over the past week...
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The Leg 3 to 4 Handover

Gina Jozef, CU - On the morning of June 4...
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CIRES & CU Boulder MOSAiC Team Member Blogs - June 4-17

Read blog posts from CIRES/CU Boulder MOSAiC team members Radiance Calmer, Matt Shupe, Lianna Nixon, and Jonathan Hamilton.
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MOSAiC Mixdown: mini-podcasts from the Arctic

Sam Cornish - Check out these mini podcast episodes about MOSAiC produced by PhD student and MOSAiC School participant Sam Cornish.
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 4.1

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD - Over the past week...
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Matthew Shupe's MOSAiC Blog

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - Anchors up, and underway.
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: MOSAiC trace gas fluxes update 4.0

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA PSD - We're back...
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Blog from the RV Polarstern: June 3rd Weekly Report

Hans-Werner Jacobi - We are finally arriving...
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Notes from the Field: We Go North

Melinda Webster, University of Alaska Fairbanks - We did it. All leg 4 MOSAiC participants passed...
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Postcards from a Frozen Icebreaker - Matthew Shupe's MOSAiC Blog

Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA - MOSAiC co-coordinator Matthew Shupe is heading back out into the Arctic for Leg 4 of MOSAiC. Read his blog posts here!
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Gina Jozef's Blog: Last Days on the Floe

Gina Jozef - This week I said goodbye to DroneVille 2.0. 
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Leg III Blog: Sights of the Arctic, Part 3


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Gina Jozef's Blog: Ninth Week on the Polarstern

Gina Jozef - The beginning of this week...
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Gina Jozef's Blog: Eighth Week on the Polarstern

Gina Jozef - The 24th was the first day of DataHawk flights...
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Notes from the Field: Ice Coring Mondays

Steven Fons/NASA GSFC - Each week, a group of scientists from the Sea Ice, Ecology, and Biogeochemistry teams goes out to two different locations on the floe to drill ice cores that will be used in a variety of different experiments back on the ship.
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Weekly Update from Bariteau and Jacobi: Preparing to leave the floe

Ludovic Bariteau, Hans-Werner Jacobi - Ludovic Bariteau, Hans-Werner Jacobi Weekly Update
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Leg III Blog: Sights of the Arctic

Paul Ortega, John Bilberry, and Dean Greenamyer - ARM has three technicians—Paul Ortega and John Bilberry, both from Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Dean Greenamyer, Hamelmann Com
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Weekly update from Bariteau and Jacobi: Trace gas fluxes

Ludovic Bariteau, Hans-Werner Jacobi - Ludovic Bariteau, Hans-Werner Jacobi Weekly Update
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Weekly update from Bariteau and Jacobi: Instrument Issues, High Winds, Leg Updates

Ludovic Bariteau, Hans-Werner Jacobi - Ludovic Bariteau, Hans-Werner Jacobi; RV Polarstern, Arctic Ocean:
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Weekly Update from Bariteau and Jacobi: Research challenges and uncertainties

Ludovic Bariteau, Hans-Werner Jacobi - Weekly update from Ludovic Bariteau, including navigating ice cracks, coronavirus, weather:
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Weekly Update from Bariteau and Jacobi: Polarstern & Dranitsyn

Ludovic Bariteau, Hans-Werner Jacobi - Weekly update from Ludovic Bariteau, Hans-Werner Jacobi:
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L3 Down! Tipped by Ice Movements

Michael Gallagher, Matthew Shupe, CIRES & NOAA - MOSAiC team members Michael Gallagher (CIRES & NOAA) and Taneil Uttal (NOAA) were on site fixing the ASFS (atmospheric surface f
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Heading Home in the Dark

Dave Costa, CIRES and NOAA - Dave Costa, CIRES/NOAA - CIRES/NOAA scientist Dave Costa is one of several CIRES scientists nearly back to land after sp
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The Screeching Sounds of Sea Ice

Dave Costa, CIRES/NOAA - CIRES/NOAA scientist Dave Costa is on his way back to land after spending months at sea during Leg 1 of MOSAiC. In this blog, he recounts the unique soundscape he experienced as the Russian icebreaker broke through sea ice on its way back to Tromso:
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MOSAiC Leg 2 Begins!

Julienne Stroeve, from aboard the Russian Kapitan Dranitsyn icebreaker - by Julienne Stroeve, CIRES, NSIDC, CU Boulder, University College London, University of Manitoba
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Weekly Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist, CIRES & NOAA - by Byron Blomquist, CIRES and NOAA  
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Matthew Shupe's Blogs from Polarstern

Matthew Shupe, CIRES and NOAA - An entire year frozen into the Arctic Ocean. 600 people from 17 countries. The largest Arctic climate expedition ever… In September 2019 the German research icebreaker Polarstern departed from Tromsø, Norway and parked next to a chunk of sea ice. CIRES scientist Matthew Shupe writes near-daily blogs.
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Weekly Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist, CIRES & NOAA - by Byron Blomquist, CIRES and NOAA  
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Weekly Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist, CIRES & NOAA - by Byron Blomquist, CIRES and NOAA
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A Serious Storm

Amy Richman, CIRES and CU Boulder -  
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Challenges in the field

Sara Morris, CIRES and NOAA - The ATMOS Team is hard at work!
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Weekly Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist, CIRES & NOAA - by Byron Blomquist, CIRES & NOAA  
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Gloves, Masks and Skin

Dave Costa, CIRES and NOAA - by Dave Costa, CIRES and NOAA
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Weekly Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist, CIRES & NOAA - by Byron Blomquist, CIRES & NOAA
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Weekly Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist, CIRES & NOAA - by Byron Blomquist, CIRES & NOAA All,
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Like Astronauts...

David Costa, CIRES & NOAA - It's really cool to see everyone on the ice with their headlights in the dark. We're like astronauts on the moon. We all wear the same snow suit, and you can only see people's eyes. I usually wear goggles, too: At -26C, exposed skin doesn't last long. 
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Weekly Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist/CIRES and NOAA - For the past week or more we have been drifting to the NW, more or less in the direction we need to go, at a speed of 0.1 to 0.3 kts. We are currently at 85° 35.3' N, 126° 9.03' E. Following the current drift course we would pass to the W of the N pole, but random shifts in direction may get us there yet.
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Weekly Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist, CIRES and NOAA - This Thursday will be the 'official' start of routine sampling and observations for MOSAiC which will continue for the next year. In reality, some instruments have been operating for several days already and preliminary snow and ice sampling surveys have occurred over the past two weeks.
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Goodbye and Good Luck, Polarstern!

Janek Uin, Brookhaven National Laboratory - It’s our last day on R/V Polarstern with the feeling of mission accomplished. We are transferring to the other icebreaker today, and this will be my last update until I get back to Norway.
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Remote Sensing and Buoy Simulations: Important Tools for MOSAiC

Ryleigh Moore, University of Utah - My name is Ryleigh Moore and I am an applied mathematics PhD student at the University of Utah. I currently study the evolution of Arctic melt pond geometry for one of my research projects and I am also working on numerical solvers for high dimensional stochastic differential equations.
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Weekly Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist, CIRES & NOAA - Today was Day 24 of the cruise and the 10th day of the drift. The setup phase is drawing to a close and our colleagues who came for the install will leave on Federov this Thursday. With that, the measurement phase begins. For our project, the ship bow tower was raised on Saturday and the sonic anemometers and Licor are running.
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How to Predict the Weather on a Russian Icebreaker

Mauro Hermann (ETH Zürich, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science), Thea Schneider (YOPP / University Potsdam), and lecturer Thomas Rackow (YOPP / Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research - Predicting the weather is not an easy thing to do - we know that from everyday life. No rain predicted? Maybe take a jacket with you anyway, because the weather is a chaotic system. This means that even small initial perturbations can lead to a very different outcome. In weather prediction, numerical computer models are used.
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Weekly Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist/CIRES and NOAA - Today is day 3 of the official MOSAiC drift. Over the past week a location for the Central Observatory was finalized and we spent a couple days transferring cargo and personnel from Federov. During the rendezvous with Federov a mother polar bear and yearling cub spent quite a bit of time investigating the ships.
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Ice Watch on the Akademik Federov

Daniel Watkins/Oregon State University - Once every hour, a pair of volunteer ice observers climbs up to the 8th floor of the ship and goes out on the observation deck to watch the ice. For 10 minutes, they watch sea ice pass by the ship. They note how much ice there is, and if there is any water visible, whether it is only in cracks, in patches, or in wide channels called leads.
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Breaking Bad (Ice)

Jessie Creamean, Colorado State University - Ah, the beautiful, brilliant aqua blue of pristine crystals. And no, I am not referring to the color of something a certain chemist makes from a certain hit TV series based in Albuquerque … I am referring to one of the most vibrant blues I have ever set eyes on, originating from multiyear sea ice in the vast waters of the Arctic Ocean.
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Watching Ice Grow

Katy Gavenus, PolarTrec - Each hour, two of us go up to the deck above the bridge and spend 10 minutes watching the sea ice within about 1 nautical mile of the ship. Then we record our observations. We do this during the day and also during the night. There are lots of volunteers on the ship, so we rotate through...
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Progress Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA - We are now on day 10 of the cruise. We spent it parked near a likely ice floe of about 2x3 km size and are considering it as a site for the central observatory. Surveys will continue tomorrow. Most of the other sea ice we've encountered in the area is thin (~30 cm) and soft, soaked with seawater, and thus not very promising for an ice camp.
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Ice and a Polar Bear

Anne Gold, CIRES - We finally hit sea ice and it is AMAZING. The glow is so strong that it felt like the sun was rising at 3 am. Our ship slowed down to 10 knots. We are switching time zones again! The ice is all broken up and beautiful. I have taken so many pictures...
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Bioluminescence, Northern Lights, and (Tonight) Ice

Katy Human, CIRES - CIRES scientists and international journalists aboard the MOSAiC mission are texting back home with brief updates, once a day. This blog post shares some of their experiences.
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Progress Update from Byron

Byron Blomquist, CIRES/NOAA - By the closest of margins, we managed to get all of our equipment and supplies loaded on a ship. Federov delayed departure by about 1/2 a day ... to collect our compressed gas standards, which arrived very late. That was a close call and I'm thankful to Markus Rex for organizing a delay to be sure the standards were loaded.
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Getting Ready for an Arctic Expedition

Chris Marsay, UGA Skidaway - Hello from Tromso! I’ve spent the past few days in northern Norway helping to set up the RV Polarstern for its year-long expedition to the Arctic Ocean for the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) project.
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