Curiously Polar

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Henry returns to land and he and Chris discus the adventures on the ice breaker in the Antarctic. He describes the challenges of braving the elements in such remote and isolated locations. We learn about how this expedition was a bit different from what we usually expect.

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POLAR NEWSREEL: Sanctions jeopardize the future of Arctic construction projects The sanctions imposed on Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine are impacting several large construction projects in the Arctic. The gravity-based structures (GBS), floating rigs, under assembly at the Novatek’s LNG Construction Center in Belokamenka outside Murmansk are among those hit by the lack of materials. A consequence of this might be a crisis of the real estate market in Murmansk if the foreign portion of the 20,000 workers at the Belokamenka yard need to move away from the region. | War in Ukraine is damaging scientific research in the Arctic The war in Ukraine is having an negative influence on Arctic science by stopping collaborations, data sampling and sharing between scientists from Russia and other nations. A series of ongoing projects have to pause the collection of data which could cause large gaps in the series and jeopardize our understanging of this rapidly changing environment. | Walrus bones found in Kyiv is testimony of viking trade During a dig in Kyiv, Ukraine, archeologists retrieved walrus remains from the twelfth century. These specimen, brought to the area by Norse Vikings, were analyzed for ancient DNA and stable isotopes to determine their origin. The results suggest that there was a high demand for walrus products and a consequent large trading route network that stretched from the remote areas of Greenland all the way through Western Europe and reaching Russia, Byzantium and Asia.

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POLAR NEWSREEL: Plan for satellites giving better Arctic weather observations Weather satellites, like Meteosat, are in a geostationary orbit that limits the field of view of the sensors in the polar areas. A consortium of the European Space Agency (ESA) and OHB Sweden is working on a constellation of 16 weather satellites in polar orbit. These will relay homogeneous, high-quality, real-time data on temperature and humidity for the whole globe. The Canadian Space Agency is planning an Arctic Observing Mission (AOM) with two satellites in highly elliptical orbits that would gather data on meteorological conditions, greenhouse gasses, air quality and space weather over Arctic areas. | Changes in sea ice have influence on ice sheet stability Antarctic ice shelves buttress against the uncontrolled release of inland ice into the ocean. The collapse of Larsen A and B shelves, has made the news in the past decades because of the calving of spectacular tabular icebergs in 1995 and 2002 respectively. A recent paper with lead author Dr Frazier Christie from the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) shows that decadal changes in the air circulation over the sea ice around Antarctica also change the concentration of sea ice that protects the ice shelves from the mechanical action of waves. In the last decade of the past century there was comparatively little sea ice and this has facilitated the breakup for the shelves, while the past decade with more sea ice has protecting them from the waves has had significantly fewer breakups. | Looking for methods to slow climate warming Researchers working at the non-profit Arctic Ice Project, launched in 2008 as ICE911, are proposing to sprinkle powdered glass "microspheres" on low-reflectivity, young sea ice off Alaska to increase its reflectivity and thus facilitating its growth and slowing down its melting. Recently though several local tribes and Indigenous Peoples organizations have expressed their concerns about the possible influence of the large amounts of microbeads on the animals and people of the Arctic.

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POLAR NEWSREEL: North Pole research platform almost ready | Worrying sea ice concentration in Bering Sea | Easter celebrations in Ittoqqortoormiit

MAIN TOPIC:

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POLAR NEWSREEL:

Meeting the Arctic: The Arctic Encounter Symposium 2022 After a long pandemic, Arctic stakeholders had the chance to meet each other early April in Alaska to discuss several different topics.

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POLAR NEWSREEL:

01 Arctic Lightnings: A dramatic rise in lightnings last summer saw nearly double as many strikes as the previous nine years combined in the High Arctic which correlates with global temperature anomalies and can become an important climate crisis indicator. | 02 Scottish Arctic: Defining itself as the northernmost non-Arctic state and sharing similar rural and demographic features mean that Scottish and Arctic communities share many present-day priorities analysts feel

that Scotlands geostrategic significance to the High North is still being overlooked despite its own Arctic Policy Framework .

A SIBERIAN REWILDING

A new study published by the University of Leeds suggestspermafrost is thawing all over the Arctic and might have reached a tipping point in Northern Europe and Western Siberia and indicates that even with the strongest efforts to reduce global carbon emissions, by 2040 the climates of Northern Europe will no longer be cold and dry enough to sustain peat permafrost. Storing more than double the carbon of the planet’s atmosphere, a thawing permafrost acts as a positive feedback loop, further increasing warming.

The unprecedented speed of the climate crisis asks for creative solutions and in Northeast Siberia, Russian scientists are working on one of the most unlikely solutions to restore high productive ecosystems and help protect the permafrost. For the past 33 years, the father-and-son team Sergey and Nikita Zimov have been slowly transforming a 20 square kilomtres area in northeastern Siberia, to investigate how man can affect the climate through ecosystem reconstruction.

The project is repopulating the area with large herbivores like horses, moose and reindeer, musk ox, bison, yaks, cows and sheep. Sergey Zimov’s hypothesis is that the change from tundra to grassland will result in a raised ratio of energy emission to energy absorption of the area, leading to less thawing of permafrost and thereby less emission of greenhouse gases. The grasslands themselves are proving better for the environment. The pale grasses are reflecting sunlight, and their deep roots increase soil carbon storage. Overall, the temperature of the permafrost in the area in which they are working is colder by an average of 2.2° C.

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POLAR NEWSREEL: Ten Pioneering Women of Antarctica and the Places Named for Them | Fossils in a Forgotten Ice Core Rewrite Greenland’s Icy Past | Beast of the Central Arctic | Seals help researchers collect data from under the ice | Obsessed by polar exploration?

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POLAR NEWSREEL: 32000 year old plant revived Scientists in Vienna are seeking to sequence the genome of an ancient flowering plant (Silene stenophylla) believed to have been buried 32,000 years ago by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River, a top site for people looking for mammoth bones today. | Sudden halt in Ukraine's Antarctic expedition The RV Noosfera, formerly RRS James Clark Ross, is in Punta Arenas since 14th March to pick up scientists and specialists and is ready for Ukraine's National Antarctic Scientific Centre (NASC) first Antarctic Expedition in 20 years, but the war is jeopardizing the mission and crew change at Vernadsky station. | Ocean temperature change calls for redefining acoustic hotspots Sounds travel faster and further in a warmer and saltier ocean and this calls for the identification of acoustic hotspots to allow for timely mitigation of anthropogenic sounds. One of these areas is located in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean close to Greenland. Others are found in the Barents Sea, northwestern Pacific, Southern Ocean between 0 and 70E, at 500m in the Arctic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Southern Caribbean Sea. | Holes in the bottom of the Arctic ocean Longer-term climate cycles might be at the origin of rapid thawing of submerged permafrost at the bottom of the Beaufort Sea between 2013 and 2019. An investigation using robots and sonar discovered the formation of large, city block sized craters in the seabed.

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POLAR NEWSREEL: Heatwaves at both of Earth’s poles Extremes of 40C above normal. Antarctic and Arctic temperatures have shocked researchers. Antarctic areas reach 40C above normal at same time as north pole regions hit 30C above usual levels. | Lowest extent of Antarctic sea-ice since the start of satellite observations This February 24th the measure of extent of Antarctic sea-ice has reached a new low more than 7% lower than the previous record-low in 2017. The larger loss of sea ice in 2022 is seen to be concentrated in especially the Ross Sea, toward the Amundsen Sea, and in the outer part of the Weddell sea ice cover. | Arctic sea ice reached its maximum extent at a near-record early date This year’s sea ice maximum was the 10th lowest on record with its greatest extent on Feb. 25, one day short of the earliest date on record. However, an early start to the melt season does not necessarily set up a low September minimum. This year’s freeze patterns varied by location, as is typical. By the time the maximum was reached, ice extent was near or above long-term averages in some places like the Bering Sea and Baffin Bay, but it was below average in other places, like the Barents Sea. | Will less ice in the Arctic Ocean lead to colder winters in the northern hemisphere? Model runs show that there is a weak link between Arctic sea ice and climatic indicators for the Northern hemisphere that may or may not link the two. | Black carbon from tourism and science and Antarctic snowmelt Study shows that local pollution from burning fossil fuels in Antarctica darkens the snow and increases melting by 23mm per year on average or by 83 tonnes for each visitor (and the carbon footprint of a researcher is 10 times that of a tourist). | Black Carbon in the Arctic The threat to the Arctic from black carbon from shipping has been known for some time. When black carbon, a short-lived climate-forcer responsible for around 20% of shipping’s climate impact, is emitted from the exhausts of ships and settles onto snow and ice, it accelerates melting and the loss of reflectivity - the albedo effect - which creates a feedback loop that further exacerbates local and global heating. Due to the use of heavy fuel oils and increased Arctic shipping traffic, emissions of black carbon from ships in the Arctic increased 85% between 2015 and 2019. With the Arctic heating-up faster than anywhere on Earth, it’s clear that this upward trend of black carbon emissions must be reversed urgently. | Sahara Dust Fertilizing Plants in the Amazon Dust from the Sahara desert is regularly transported by winds over large distances and visibly deposited on cities in Europe, but it is also surprisingly blown westwards towards South America. The Sahara dust deposited over the Amazon area is an important source of phosphorus as fertilizer for the forest plants.

Black carbon from tourism and science and Antarctic snowmelt - Study shows that local pollution from burning fossil fuels in Antarctica darkens the snow and increases melting by 23mm per year on average or by 83 tonnes for each visitor / Black Carbon in the Arctic

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ENDURANCE FOUND!: The Endurance22 expedition has found Shackleton's ship! Probably the most amazing shipwreck discovery happened 3008m below the frozen Weddell Sea on the 100th anniversary of the Boss' burial at the cemetery in Grytviken, South Georgia.

POLAR NEWSREEL: Arctic Council on hold The conflict in Ukraine has entrained a pause in the cooperation within the Arctic Council and its subsidiary bodies | New Icebreaker for Argentina Argentina has 13 bases in Antarctica and for the time being only one icebreaker, the ARA Almirante Irízar. Now the government has approved the construction of a new polar vessel in cooperation with Finnish consultants Aker Arctic | Surprising finds on the early stages of the life of the West Antarctic ice-sheet Recent research indicates that when Antarctica froze up 35 million years ago glaciation of the area of the West Antarctic ice-sheet was delayed, possibly by warmer upwelling waters | Larsen B embayment breaks up A large portion of sea-ice that has been present since 2011 has broken away and it has taken with it a sizeable portion of the adjacent Scar Inlet ice-shelf | Large heat source below Greenland ice sheet increases melting Heat produced by the transformation of gravitational energy stored in descending meltwater causes high rates of melting at the base of the Greenland ice sheet | Blue Blob near Iceland and glacial melt An unusually cold patch of sea water south of Iceland and Greenland has, and will cool the wind blowing northwest thus slowing glacial melt in Iceland, possibly until 2050 | Follow-up: Women in Science and Exploring In 1958 Anésia Pinheiro Machado, pilot and among the first to achieve several feats, became the first Brazilian to reach Antarctica but the honors went to a male national, Durval Rosa Borges, who arrived months later | Endurance Found! | Endurance22 Podcast Episode Dan Snow takes us along the Agulhas II looking for Shackleton's Endurance

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