November 3, 2022: From Home in Brooklyn, thoughts about and photos from the trip

October 27th

I left Dutch Harbor on Thursday, October 27th. Getting out of Dutch Harbor was “interesting.” As there had been storms the previous days and all flights were cancelled, when I called the airline in the morning about flying out, they said that there was no way that I’d get on a flight that day. So, I left the Healy to sleep off the ship for the first time in 54 days and checked into the Grand Aleutian hotel. When I went downstairs, one of the scientists was talking about trying to get out that afternoon. I decided to call the airline and when they answered, they said that they had just called my name and they told me to get to the airport right away. I was at the airport in 10 minutes and on my way to Anchorage about an hour later, landing there a few hours later that evening.

Plane landing on the short runway at DUT (Dutch Harbor)

At Anchorage airport, I booked a new flight to NYC and at 5:10 am the next morning, I was on my way to Seattle, and then onto Newark where I landed early Friday evening. One of my sons picked me up, we went out to dinner with two of my grandchildren, and then my son brought me home. It had been a long couple of days.

November 3rd

It’s now a week since I left the Healy and Dutch Harbor. It’s still somewhat disorienting to be off the ship back on land, in Brooklyn, and away from the unending whiteness of the ice even though it was left behind on October 15th. Getting back to “normal” life is complicated even though it was great to see family and friends.

So now, some brief reflections about the trip.

When I got on to the Healy, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Though I had previously been on six trips to the Arctic including five on boats, none were longer than three weeks. And on all of them, there were frequent zodiac cruises and shore landings. Apart from two hours of “ice liberty” at the North Pole, I hadn’t been off the ship for 52 days. I had never been on ship with a large group of scientists, seen their working conditions or kind of work that they do, nor had I ever been on a military ship.

The Healy at the North Pole, October 2, 2022

Healy crew using poles to break up thin ice before retrieving the CTD

The CTD coming up through the ice

So, what was it like/how did I do? I think that anyone who has been following my blog knows that I loved it. I can’t think of any time when I wished that I wasn’t on the boat though I knew that, during our last days on open water before we got back to Dutch Harbor, I would be ready to get off the Healy. I think that this was the case with most everyone on the ship

I had two roommates in our small berth. We got along well and there never the slightest disagreement or discord. I don’t think that I ever kept my roommates awake or was awakened by either of them. Overall, on the ship, I think that everyone respected each other and the work that went on. That includes the scientists, tech people, officers, and the crew. That’s impressive for a large group of people on a long trip with no means of egress. I believe that this happened because almost everyone on the ship was there because they wanted to be there.

Personally, though there were days with less to photograph, I found that the time went by very quickly. Whether I was photographing, working on my new images, writing, eating, or even hanging out, suddenly, it was bedtime. I certainly was never bored!

When I got on, I thought that the most interesting time photographically would be as we entered and exited the new ice as the multi-year pack ice would be somewhat uniform and hence, less interesting. That wasn’t at all the case. As we got further north, there were frequent leads of open water, with new ice formations. It made it easier for the ship to move through the ice and it was great for my photography. There should have been fewer leads and less open water as we moved north.

However, environmentally, it was highly problematic and evidence for the major effects of climate change on the Arctic ice and ocean. The scientific work being carried out on the Healy will give us greater understanding of the Arctic and the rapid changes going on there.

In the end, it will take time to fully process my experience on the Healy and in the vastness of the Arctic ice. without a doubt, it was one of the most amazing and wonderful experiences of my life.

Pancake Ice next to a lead

Not the End

As I process my photographs and my thoughts, I will make additional posts to this blog and/or to a new Arctic webpage on my site.

October 26th: Return to Dutch Harbor

After my last post on October 22nd, everything changed. The captain got on p.a. system and announced that because of the weather forecasts/models, we would be steaming to Dutch Harbor at full speed ahead. Both very high winds and seas were predicted. So, instead of arriving on Thursday, October 27th we arrived in the evening on Monday, October 24th. While we hit choppy seas, we arrived in Dutch with calm weather and seas, and a temperature of 58o F. The light was beautiful as we came into port. We had steamed almost 750 nm (860 mi) in a little over 48 hours.

Nearing Dutch Harbor

Coming into the port

Since Monday, most everyone is going back and forth into town, either walking or taking the “Liberty vans” that the Coast Guard runs. People are hitting the bars, restaurants, and stores after almost two months of having no access to them. While the weather when we arrived in Dutch Harbor was good, today, the weather forecast is living up to the predictions as it is raining hard and blowing even harder, with gusts up to 50 knots. For a few hours, the Liberty vans weren’t  running, and we couldn’t get off the Healy.

The airport here, DUT, is small with a short runway. All flights in and out have been canceled over the past two days and everyone is looking at or discussing the weather forecasts and trying to figure out what to do. Options are to hang in there for our various flights or to consider staying on the Healy until Juneau and then flying out from there after the ship arrives. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know what to do. We’ll see! It’s life in the Aleutians.

High winds whipping up the spray and waves, October 26th

In this post, I’m continuing writing about three of the senior scientists on the trip, Seth Danielson, Jackie Grebmeier, and Lee Cooper.

Seth Danielson is an Associate Professor of Oceanography at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University and M.S. and a Ph.D. degree in Oceanography from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). He was the 2021 recipient of the Alaska Ocean Leadership Award for Marine Research by the Alaska Sea Life Center. He has served on the scientific advisory boards for a variety of regional and national programs.

Danielson has studied the Arctic as an oceanographer for nearly 30 years. He became interested Arctic science in his mid 20’s when he began looking for a way to apply his technical background as an electrical engineer to scientific field research. He had already decided that he didn’t want to work in industry and that brought him to Fairbanks, Alaska and into the world of high-latitude science joining trips to Antarctic and Greenland as an engineer. Soon after, he enrolled in a graduate program for physical oceanography at UAF.

Since the mid-1990s, Danielson has sailed as an oceanographer to the Arctic and sub-Arctic dozens of times, conducting research from large icebreakers, small coastal boats, and other vessels. He has lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for nearly 30 years and though Fairbanks is not in the Arctic, it is only 120 miles south of the Arctic Circle. He finds it to be a very convenient place from which to work and study the oceans surrounding Alaska. Danielson also plays clawhammer style banjo and is a founding member of the contradance and festival band Ice Jam. He resides with his family in Fairbanks, AK, in a self-designed wind and solar powered home.

As a physical oceanographer, Danielson studies the motion of the ocean (currents and waves) and the physical properties of seawater (salinity and temperature). He leads ongoing studies that monitor how currents and temperatures change from week-to-week and from decade-to-decade, including the continuation of observation programs and lines of study begun over 50 years ago by his predecessors.

The primary instrument Danielson works with is the conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) system, which is an electronic system that measures temperature, salinity, pressure, light, chlorophyll, turbidity, and nutrients. He also deploys oceanographic moorings, which autonomously record sensor data for a year at a time. At the end of the year, he and his team recover the instruments and download the data. His lab also deploys autonomous underwater vehicles called “gliders” (think underwater drone), which are piloted from the lab at UAF and can remain out in the ocean for 3 months at a time. He also works with acoustic and radio-wave sensors that measure the speed and direction of ocean currents.

Seth Danielson’s research can help policy makers and resource managers make scientifically informed decisions. He writes: “As the Arctic warms, new challenges are requiring a careful balancing act that considers numerous voices and interests, and the challenges are likely to only increase in the future as various social, environmental, and ecological thresholds are crossed. These include economic drivers, the marine industry - including pan-arctic shipping and natural resource development - conservation ecology and biodiversity, and human rights of the Indigenous peoples who have lived in the Arctic for many millennia.”

His work and that of others on our trip on the Healy as part of the Synoptic Arctic Survey is providing information that will be needed to meet the coming challenges of an Arctic that looks and functions differently than in the past.

For more information about Seth Danielson:

uaf.edu/cfos/people/faculty/detail/seth-danielson.php

Jackie Grebmeier has been a Professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences (UMCES; Chesapeake Biological Laboratory) since 2008. She holds a B.A. in Zoology (1977), a M.S. degree in Biology (1979), M.S. degree in Marine Affairs (1983), and a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography (1987). Following a postdoctoral position at the University of Southern California, she then spent 20 years at the University of Tennessee (1989-2008) before joining CBL in 2008.

Professor Grebmeier's oceanographic research interests are related to pelagic-benthic coupling, benthic carbon cycling, and benthic faunal population structure in the marine environment. In simpler terms, she looks at relationships between benthic (bottom) and pelagic (surface) animal and plant life. Benthic sea life is an important part of the Arctic biomass.

She has participated in more than 66 oceanographic cruises including 14 on the Healy, primarily in the Arctic, acting as Chief Scientist on many of them. She has led multiple interdisciplinary Arctic programs and is currently the lead scientist for the Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO) in the Arctic, which has been supported since 2010 by multiple agencies in the US and international collaborators in the Pacific Arctic Group.

Professor Grebmeier was appointed by President Clinton to the US Arctic Research Commission from 2000-2003 and served as the US delegate and one of four Vice-Presidents to the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) from 2006-2014. She has received multiple awards, including the Alaska Ocean Leadership Award from the Alaska Sea Life Center in 2015, the IASC Medal in 2015, the UMCES President’s Award for Excellence in Application of Science in 2017, and she was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018.

She is also co-chair with another member of the science party, Dr. Carin Ashjian, of the United States Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) Committee, and member of the International SAS committee. Jackie and Carin were co-chief scientists on the HLY2202 SAS cruise.

Professor Grebmeier is also a major force in the United States and world Arctic community. For many years she did research with Russian scientists on the western side of the Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea looking at the production of benthic faunal populations in relation to ecosystem drivers. She is also involved with many other national and international scientific organizations investigating the Arctic from Canada, China, Japan and Korea as part of the Pacific Arctic Group and works with many European colleagues.

Find out more about Professor Grebmeier at:  http://Arctic.cbl.umces.edu and http://DBO.cbl.umces.edu

Lee Cooper has been a biogeochemist for over 35 years. Growing up in Southern California he became interested in marine plants and interestingly, he found that some of the same plants that grow in the Pacific off Southern California also grow as far north as the Alaskan Peninsula. As a young man it seemed “promising to leave Los Angeles in a northerly directly.” Following that track, he moved to the University of California Santa Cruz for his undergraduate work. He continued his northward movement north to the Bodega Marine Lab, north of San Francisco where he met his future wife, the marine scientist, Jackie Grebmeier. From California he moved to Seattle getting his MS at the University of Washington.

The North continued its pull and he moved to Fairbanks for his PhD to study with a scientist prominent in the study of sea grass ecosystems. He did his research on the eel grass beds near Cold Bay, Alaska that are the largest in the world. While there, he became interested in the physiology of photosynthesis in sea grasses that led to post doc work on isotopic variability in plants. That, in turn, led to a “real” job at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee where he worked for 10 during the 1990s.

In the 1990s revelations became available about significant dumping of radioactive material in the Arctic by the former Soviet Union and Cooper began studying its effects on the Arctic. He continues his research on the Arctic ecosystem that has led to his continuing research into climate change in the Arctic.

Cooper has participated in many cruises on the Healy. On this trip, Cooper is part of the team effort doing measurements that are critical to the understanding of the physics, chemistry and biology of the water column and sediments in the Arctic. His research here includes chlorophyll in the water and the sediments, nutrients, dissolved organic carbon, and stable isotopes of oxygen that provide information on water masses and the sources of freshwater in surface waters.

October 22, 2022: Nearing the Bering Strait and Alaska

October 21st

Yesterday, the intense science of the past few days came to an end. Since then, we have been in rough seas with the ship rolling more than at any other time during our cruise. Last night around 11 pm, we all got pages that the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis was visible. Though it had been visible on two other nights during the trip, I’d slept through the pages on my pager. It was very exciting to see.

Four image composite of Aurora Borealis siting

October 19th

In this post, I’m beginning writing about scientists on the trip. As I have mentioned before this is very hands on science, down and dirty with the science people and the crew coordinating and participating in the deployments of the scientific instruments, often in bitter cold and icy conditions. The gloves must often come off to adjust and, sometimes, to repair equipment before deployments. 

Polar Science requires a great deal of flexibility. The white board listing the day’s deployments is called, “The Board of Lies,” because of the frequency that schedule changes must be made. Rigidity doesn’t work in the Arctic. Weather, seas, ice, and sometimes, shipboard, may cause science stations to be changed, canceled, or shortened.

As a non-scientist, interested in science, it was humbling to find out how little I knew about the kind of research being done on the Healy. After six plus weeks on the ship, I understand more, but not that much more. Though the overall goal of the research and data collection being done is to better understand the Arctic, much of the work is narrowly focused and frequently obscure to an outsider. It is, however, how science gets done, how data is acquired, and how fact is separated from fiction. Ultimately, it gives us more answers about how, where, and why the Arctic is changing more quickly than previous models predicted.

Since October 17th, the science work has been intense with most of the work being done 24 hours a day. There have been multiple stations everyday which is possible because the water is much shallower than when we were further north. Our track on the Chukchi Shelf, north of the Bering Strait, is taking us through a small canyon northwest of Hanna Shoal where the water depth is between 50 and 300 meters verses the 2000 to 4000 meters depths north in the Arctic Ocean.

Deployments follow a specific order in order not to “muck things up,” literally. The CTD, goes first followed by the VPR (optics), the various fine nets, followed by equipment that takes cores or grab mud from the bottom. (For more specific information on the instruments, refer to my post for September 10th – 12th.) The idea is to deploy equipment that won’t disturb the water column before the equipment that creates turbulence.

This evening I photographed small creatures, outside in the cold as they were filtered out from mud cores brought up from the bottom. The work with the mud is a messy business. It’s brought up with a Van Veen grab (a clamshell-like device) and dumped into a bucket. Immediately afterwards, the mud is carried to and dumped into a wooden frame with a screen at the bottom and the mud is carefully hosed away and off the deck into the sea. The living things at the bottom of the screen are counted, measured, identified, and recorded.

This sampling contained sea worms, clams, and other crustaceans

The following writing is taken from brief interviews with two of the scientists onboard, Laurie Juranek and Cedric Magen.

Laurie Juranek is an Associate Professor of Oceanography at Oregon State University. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of California, Davis and her PhD is from the University of Washington. She is a marine biogeochemist who is trying to understand the intersection of biology, chemistry, and physics in the Arctic Ocean.

Professor Juranek became interested in the Arctic through happenstance. In 2011, she started interacting with groups studying changes in Arctic while working as post-doc researcher at NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Her first trip to the Arctic, in 2011, was on the Healy. That trip opened a door for her, and she was hooked. On the Healy, she documented changes in the Arctic Ocean’s biogeochemistry, specifically looking at how the ecosystem was changing in the later part of the year as the ice came back.

Professor Juranek has returned on cruises to the Arctic almost every year since then, including several times as a chief scientist. In her research, she is trying to understand how ecosystems are responding to the dramatic changes in the ocean environment. Juranek studies changes in phytoplankton, including its patterns of primary productivity and growth. While phytoplankton is at the bottom of the food chain, these single-celled plants are the invisible forest of the ocean, supplying food for the entire ocean ecosystem. Specifically, she measures dissolved oxygen to tell us about the physical and biological process in the ocean.

She looks at the activity of these single-celled plants to see how they are responding to climate change: to the smaller extent of sea ice, to warming sea and air temperatures, and to the changing availability of nutrients. In the Arctic, there are increasingly, larger areas of open water that also remain unfrozen for longer periods of time that affect phytoplankton growth and location.

Like land-based plants, phytoplankton convert water into oxygen and carbon dioxide into plant matter (their body) through photosynthesis. Changes in the extant ice, light and temperature affect the availability of nutrients at the surface. The changes affect these single-celled plants which need both light and nutrients at the same time to grow and reproduce.

The changes and patterns of productivity at the surface of the ocean that Professor Juranek studies are of great importance. The changes affect the entire food chain including larger animals such as polar bears, walruses, whales, and humans. Her research also helps to understand the sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere in the Arctic Ocean, by trying to understand whether these changes are increasing, decreasing, or staying constant.  Professor Juranek’s research helps us to understand the effects of global warming in the Arctic Ocean.

Cedric Magen is a research scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his doctorate from McGill University, in Montreal, studying the geochemistry of Arctic Sediments. During his doctoral research, Magen spent time on the Canadian icebreaker Amundsen to investigate early diagenesis in recent sediments of the Mackenzie Shelf. Early diagenesis describes transports and reactions of chemicals involved in the degradation of organic matter into simpler molecules. This study helps us to understand how organic matter fuels sediment respiration, the respiration of the various types of living matter in the sediments.

Magen’s interest in oceanography began when he was young, after he saw the work of Jacques Costeau. In 2012, as part of his second post-doctoral work, he started studying methane in the Gulf of Mexico following the huge well blowout of the Deepwater Horizon. After this work, he was asked by a colleague, Lee Cooper, to run the Stable Isotope Lab at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. In 2017, Cooper, a long time Arctic researcher, asked Magen to join a cruise on the Healy in 2017 to the Chuchki Sea north of Alaska to look methane in the water column and shallow sediments there.

On this trip on the Healy, Magen is carrying out exploratory work to see if, and how much methane is in the deep basin of the Arctic Ocean. It is already known that methane is released from the bottom on the continental shelf, mostly in waters off Siberia. Magen wants to see if the circulation of the water masses carries this methane to the deep basin and if, and where it is released into the atmosphere.

Very little is currently known about the sources, dynamics, locations, and amounts of methane in the depths of the Arctic. Magen’s research will help to refine the modeling of this gas in the atmosphere. As methane is 20 times more per unit a contributor to global warming than carbon dioxide, it is critical to better understand the contribution from all the sources that increase its levels in the earth’s atmosphere.

Sunrise while steaming south.

October 15, 2022: Leaving the Ice

October 14, 2022

Yesterday was very exciting as we saw our first polar bear of the trip. The bear came reasonably close to the ship, and everyone was out looking and photographing. As we were stopped at a science station the bear remained in view for over 30 minutes before it disappeared in the distance.

There’s been a lot going on over the past few days as we continued to move south. We’re now 900 miles South of the North Pole, two weeks after we arrived there. Our time there is starting to feel like a distant, but vivid memory. I’ve been photographing the pack ice and thin ice when we find leads as I have done since we entered the ice exactly one month ago on September 14th.  I continue to find the structure and infinite forms of the ice to be wonderous. The cloud formations have also been quite extraordinary and on more than one recent day, the pinkish light of sunrise spread in an arc of almost 270 degrees around the horizon.

We’re doing a full science station today with multiple deployments of instruments and equipment. The next few days will be very intense for the scientists and crew on the ship as there will be a long series of stations that are relatively close together. Everyone will be working day and night with little time for sleep.

Today may be our last day in the ice. And what a final day it has been. It has been cold, and crystal clear, both during the night and the day. Though we were stopped all for the station, there was plenty to see and photograph. There were beautiful and varied formations in the grease and nilas ice. On the ship, metal railings and other structures were thickly covered with hoarfrost crystals. Hoarfrost is formed through sublimation when vapor in the atmosphere condenses directly into ice. For the first time, I climbed up to Aloft CONN, 93 feet about the water line. The views were amazing.

I photographed on and off all day long including science deployments in the early morning as well as repeated trips up to the bridge. I also photographed one of our scientists working in one of the science refrigerators, separating out Copepods and other tiny animals collected during deployments of the various collection nets that are deployed.

Sunrise wasn’t until just before noon today because we are so far west in our time zone. The sun remains low in the sky, but we now have over seven hours of daylight.

October 15th

At about 2 pm today, Alaska time, we left the ice. Our exit was exciting as there were beautiful formations of nilas, grease, and pancake ice. It was a wonderful ending to our time in the ice.

We will be steaming in open water until our arrival in Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians at the end of the month. It’s hard to believe that we are three-quarters of the way through the trip. Right now, we’re moving at over 15 knots, a bit over 17 mph. It’s a lot faster than we moved in the ice at between two and seven knots. Everyone is tying loose things down as we will be hitting high winds tomorrow or the next day.

The first and likely, the only polar bear we will see on the trip. Seen Thursday, October 13th

The Multinet being deployed. It has very fine netting to catch Copepods and other tiny sealife.

Part of the pink sky that wrapped almost 270 degrees around the horizon with nilas ice.

Hoarfrost crystals that grew on a railing on the Healy deck.

Sunset, with ice fog, nilas and finger rafting ices.

Floating pancake ice at the end of our time in the ice. Note the ocean swell in the scene.

October 8, 2022: On the Way South

I haven’t posted for the past few days as we move south. It’s been strange looking out of my porthole window and finding it to be dark outside after several weeks in persistent early twilight with sufficient light to enjoy the Arctic landscape. We also endured a couple of days of blizzard-like near white-out conditions with strong winds, blowing snow and low visibility.

We had a sunrise and sunset today, with the sun climbing slightly above the horizon for the first-time in 10 days. I wanted to write the exact times for sunrise and sunset, but three different sources gave me three widely differing times. While at home, we can look at the paper or do an internet search to find sunrise and sunset. It turns out not to be so simple in the far North.

Before I left for this trip, I did internet searches for charts showing the hours of daylight at different latitudes. Most of the time, my searches returned results for North Pole, Alaska, not for the geographical North Pole. There are also programs which do the calculation, but even those don’t necessarily agree. Perhaps the easiest way of making the calculation up here would be to just watch the sunrise and sunset. Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t be cooperating.

The poor weather conditions also brought science deployments to a complete halt. As the weather improved today, we’re doing a full science station with multiple deployments of instruments and equipment. It’s the first since we left 88 °N a few days ago. The lack of deployments was frustrating for the scientists on board, but all understand that we’re in the High Arctic and often in difficult weather and ice conditions. Most people entertained themselves by reading, playing card and board games, watching movies, playing ping pong, working out in the gyms, or catching up on sleep.

As the weather has improved today, I look forward to continuing to photograph the Arctic landscape.

Clouds, sun glow, grease ice, and a lead (for the ship)

Dark clouds, grease ice, and a lead

Abstract forms from broken ice in a lead

September 26 – October 1, 2022: Reaching the North Pole

October 1st 

As the pack ice is currently drifting at one knot every three hours, the crew must periodically change the Healy’s position to keep it close to the Pole. They are also looking for a floe large and stable enough for our “Ice Liberty.” Plans have changed, so we won’t be getting onto the ice until tomorrow. It will be everyone’s first time off the Healy in 29 days and it’s very exciting. Later tomorrow, we will begin our long journey south. Along the way, there will be frequent long and short stations for science deployments. Yesterday and today there have been major deployments of the scientific instruments and equipment.

Tomorrow, we will place more than 200 small wooden boats on an ice floe. They have been decorated by people on the Healy and children from different schools around the United States. A tracking device will be placed on the same floe to follow its progress. Each boat has a tracking number and the name of a website, www.floatboat.org, burned into its deck. On the website, people who find one of these boats can contact the organization so that the participating schools and children will know where and when their boats were found.

This morning, I was given back three Styrofoam coffee cups that I had decorated for my grandchildren. They had been attached to equipment that was sent to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean at the Pole. It’s a tradition on the ship to send these cups down; they come back the size of shot glasses because of the enormous pressure in the deep. I was also given a tiny bottle of water from samples taken near the sea bottom at the Pole, 4100 meters (13,450 feet) deep. It’s exciting to have the water.

September 30th

At 22:06:01 UTC, 2:08 pm Alaska time, we reached and stopped at the North Pole after 27 days on the USCG icebreaker Healy. The temperature was 2.2°F, -16.6°C with 17-knot winds–not too bad if you were out of the wind. 

The author at the North Pole, September 30, 2022.

Many people were up on the bridge as we got there, and all were quite giddy. Several people, including me, were watching the three GPS displays carefully to see and photograph the exact moment we reached the latitude of 90°N. The GPS readings for longitude were going crazy with each one showing wildly different and fluctuating numbers. 

The different GPS systems are in different locations on the ship and thus fall along different meridians of longitude at 90°N. At the Pole, we are in a place with no constant hourly time. The hour fluctuates if you walk a short distance. By walking around the Pole a few feet away, one can walk through every time zone and meridian of longitude in a few seconds.

Earlier in the morning we had a spectacular “almost” sunrise with wild colors, cloud formations, and ice. While there were many leads of open water over the past few days, much of last night was slow going in heavy ice.

The sun at its zenith on September 30, 2022, a few miles from the North Pole.

September 29th

Today the sun transited our meridian (line of longitude) at 2049 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, based on the standard time at Greenwich, UK) or 2:29 pm Alaska time. For the first time, it is below the horizon 24 hours a day. We went from 7:49 hours of daylight yesterday to none today. Though it’s still quite light out and was that way almost all night, the sun won’t rise above the horizon at this latitude until close to the spring equinox in 2023.  

We’re above 88° N, about 138 miles from the North Pole and moving through a lead at 7+ knots. The captain estimates that we’ll be at the Pole on Saturday, October 1st barring long passages through thick ice. We’ve continued to have long leads that increase our speed. If we get there on the 1st, we will be in medium twilight. Then, when we turn south, we will be chasing the sun, which will reappear as we move to lower latitudes. Theoretically, we could choose any heading (direction) south with the slightest movement east or west. 

September 28th 

For the past three days, we’ve largely been in snow and fog conditions with little visibility. The hours of daylight have been diminishing rapidly. We’ve gone from about 13 hours to less than 8 hours of daylight in under a week. At the Pole, the sun hasn’t risen above the horizon since September 24th.

Though at times, we’ve been moving through the pack ice slowly while we’re “backing and ramming” our way through pressure ridges, we’re making good progress toward the Pole. Pressure ridges are formed when wind and water currents cause ice floes to push together, forcing the ice up into mounds of thick broken ice.

The ship "backing and ramming”— preparing to hit the ice a second time after losing momentum in the thick ice. The dark material in the ice is most likely dirt that was attached to formerly fast ice (ice attached to the bottom). It most likely drifted across from the Siberian continental shelf.

This morning, we crossed 87° N, 207 miles from the Pole. We’re not planning to do any science stations before we get to the Pole due to the ice and weather. Though the fog and snow continued this morning, this afternoon was glorious with sun, beautiful skies, and a huge lead with open water and grease ice, which has a matte appearance. The lead was about one mile wide by six miles long and by far the largest area of open water since we entered the pack ice. Leads, or their absence, are largely caused by the direction and strength of the prevailing winds.

I’ve been thinking about what the trip means to me. It’s an amazing adventure and opportunity to travel and photograph a place where few people venture. It’s a long, 55-day trip to an extremely remote and forbidding location. But I’m on a 420-foot long USCG icebreaker, guided by a knowledgeable captain and crew. We get three square meals a day and comfortable if not luxurious quarters. There are also three gyms and many other forms of entertainment. It’s also warm and dry here. 

When I go outside in my new fancy down parka to photograph, I think about those who first ventured here. They endured unimaginable conditions with crude equipment. Many perished, as did many of those who set out to rescue them. I’m just a tiny drop in their ocean of discovery.

Correction

I’ve been incorrectly stating that one degree of latitude is equal to 60 statute miles. One degree of latitude is 60 nautical miles or about 69 statute miles, so I’ve been understating distances by about 15 percent. 

Looking south at noon at thin ice in a long lead of open water.

Thin and pack ice with unusual form in foreground.

With the sun below the horizon, the sky and clouds are lit from below. The dark area in the foreground is open water.

October 2, 2022: At the North Pole

This is going to be a briefer post as I’m doing it from the ship via a Cerius Iridium satellite connection. When we arrived at the Pole on Friday, we thought that we would have “Ice Liberty,” on Saturday, but it was postponed until yesterday (Sunday). It was very “cool,” and, quite cold, though if anything, I was too warm except for very cold fingers. I guess it's a photographer's "comes with the territory." It was the first time that we were off the ship since we left Dutch Harbor on September 4th.

Looking at the brow, before we headed onto the ice at the Pole

The Healy seen from the ice

Enjoying “Ice Liberty” at the North Pole

Captain Ken Boda joined us on the ice

A bit after noon, there was a Cutterman ceremony on the flight deck that honored crew members who had been deployed on a ship for more than 5 years. After that, everyone headed back on the ice for group photos.

The science party with banner, photo by L. Ames

Once we were back aboard, we started on our long journey south, heading towards Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians of Alaska where we will arrive in late October.­­­­­­­ We crossed the International Date line for a few minutes, so technically, we were briefly on Siberian time.

As we go south, we will be chasing the light, or more accurately, chasing night and day. In recent days near the Pole, it never got dark, even with the sun below the horizon. Soon, we will have night, but we’ll also have day, with the sun beginning to rise above the horizon. By the time we get back to Dutch Harbor we should have between 8 and 9 hours of daylight.

As I’m posting this directly, the post about our arrival at the Pole and the previous days may go up after this one. BTW, if you like the blog, please tell other people about it. You can also write to me at sussmanfinearts@earthlink.net though I won’t be able to access those emails for a couple of weeks.

Small boats on their floe. These numbered boats, painted by children as well as by people on the ship are part of the www.floatboat.org project. Anyone finding one of the boats can contact the organization, give them the tracking number, and the school or person who painted the boat will be notified.

September 21 – 25, 2022: In the Pack Ice

Since September 20th, we’ve been in solid pack ice with few or no areas of open water. Our progress is slower, but steady most of the time. We move at between three and six knots (one knot = 1.15 mph) in the ice. As I’m writing, on September 22nd at 10:15 pm, we’re doing “backing and ramming,” which slows us down. When the ship is stopped by a pressure ridge or other thick ice, we back up enough to give us space to pick up speed to go forward and ram the ice to continue our journey north.

Pack ice with pressure ridges and open water.

We’ll be at 83° N  soon, which is 420 miles from the Pole. It’s still light out. It will not get totally dark tonight, even though soon, the sun will drop below the horizon, as we move towards the Arctic night. It’s not particularly cold, hovering around 14° F all day. When there’s little wind, I can go outside and photograph without gloves for a few minutes, though I usually dress appropriately.

When we’re stopped at a station, I photograph less than when we’re moving, but there’s still so much to see. The light in the Arctic is different from that at lower latitudes. Colors are muted and soft; it’s incredibly beautiful. Today we were parked in a place with an area of flat, uncovered ice. Its textures and small variations create abstract structures. 

Friday, September 23rd 

Today was a full-day science station with limited visibility and no movement. 

Composite image with broken-up pack ice.

Saturday, September 24th

It’s white-on-white today, with snow, fog, and snow-covered ice, making for very limited visibility. In the pack ice, control of the ship often passes from the bridge to Aloft CONN, which is a control room 93 feet above the water line. The additional height gives a longer line of sight to the horizon, if the horizon is visible at all. Because of the weather, we’ve foregone a science station today. We’re getting near 84°N, 360 miles from the Pole.

Since it’s looking like a non-photography day outside, I’m going to describe a bit of daily life on the ship. The Healy is a 420-foot-long icebreaker that was launched in 1997. The Coast Guard’s website explains that its “primary mission is to function as a world class high latitude research platform.” For the science work onboard, there are several labs: the main lab, the wet lab, the biological/chemical analysis lab, and the electronic/computer lab, as well as several staging areas inside and outside for deploying instruments and equipment. The science team, technical support team, crew, and the bridge all carefully coordinate the daily deployments. If you’re interested in learning more about the USCG Healy, there’s lots of information about it on the web.

Sunrise, clouds and pack ice.

I share a berth with two other men, and we share a toilet (head) and shower with the adjoining room. Our room includes a bunk bed or “rack,” and a single bed that is enclosed on the top. It’s nicknamed “the coffin.” I passed on choosing it for my bed. Each bed has curtains to block out light; it’s quite cozy in there. There is also a porthole, sink, gear lockers, file cabinets, and a couple of desks. Other than sleeping, none of us spend much time in our rooms. After three weeks aboard, we all get along well.

My rack (bed) and one of the many compartment doors we go through every day. There are five doors between the mess and the science labs

There are many “morale” events, and as I write in the Science Conference Room, one group is learning a board game, another is playing Dungeons and Dragons, and a third group, including the captain, is taking a lesson in playing the ukulele. Yesterday, I played ping pong and came close to beating Seth, one of the best players on the ship. I have high hopes of winning in the future. I also taught two people to play gin rummy. Unfortunately, both drubbed me.

Sunday, September 25th 

Today we’ve been underway for three weeks. In the morning, we had snow and fog, but we were also in a lead (an area of open water in the pack ice) that enabled us to move along much faster than in the thick pack ice. Later, the skies cleared, and the blowing snow and wind gave the snowscapes an ethereal quality. If I don’t include the horizon when I frame an image, it becomes difficult to discern the scale of the scene. For example, low pressure ridges of ice that are only 10 or 15 feet above their base may resemble mountain ranges surrounded by snow-covered plains.

Overlapping floes in a frozen lead.

As the sun came out, the temperature quickly dropped, from about 17° F to 6°F, with 30 knot (about 35 mph) winds. I spent some time outside photographing; it wasn’t bad in the lee of the wind. At our location at 85°N, only 300 miles from the Pole, we had still had 11½ hours of sunlight.

“Mountains-in-Miniature.” These ridges are actually only 15-20 feet high.

September 19 – 20, 2022: From Thin Ice to Pack Ice

On September 19th and 20th, we didn’t move very far. We are now traveling to stations (locations where the science equipment is deployed in the water) on a line to the North Pole. The plan is to alternate full-day long stations with short station stops of a few hours so that we can proceed timely to the Pole. 

Grease ice with open water. Note how the thin ice flexes in the swell.

Unfortunately, we recently had a glitch that delayed our journey. The multi-corer had been deployed to take mud samples from the sea bottom and was being brought back to the surface. As it came up, the cable wound improperly on the drum. It was the deepest the cable has been deployed (to 3800 meters, 12,000+ feet) since it was prepped before the ship left Seattle. Finding a solution to the problem prevented us from moving for almost a full day.

New ice and open water.

For two days, we were in the pack ice, though it’s not very thick yet. We’ll be “in the ice” for three to four weeks."

The forms in the ice vary from snow on hummocks to flat ice where former leads (areas of open water) have frozen over, to small pools of open water or frozen pools. September 19th and 20th were remarkably clear with beautiful sunrises and sunsets and light sparkling on the ice and snow.

New grease ice and thicker new ice, with its bluer tones.

The fall equinox is today, September 22nd, and we’re less than 550 miles away from the Pole. For the last few days, though the sun dropped below the horizon at night, it hasn’t been completely dark.

 
At the Pole, September 24th is the last day that the sun will be above the horizon until it reappears at the spring equinox. It seems counterintuitive, but until September 23rd the sun is still up for 24 hours a day at the Pole. Starting September 25th, it won’t rise above the horizon for 174 days.

If our journey gets us to the Pole in the next 10-12 days, there should be some level of twilight there, as twilight doesn’t disappear completely until October 6th. Hopefully there will be enough light that I can do some photography when we get there. Then, as we head south again, the length of the days will slowly increase and by the time we get back to Dutch Harbor on October 28th, we should have about 9 hours of daylight.

Sunset and new ice. Note that the flat formerly open water, known as lead, forms right angles.

For more information about the purpose and research on this trip as part of the Synoptic Arctic Survey – A pan-Arctic Research Program, go to: https://synopticarcticsurvey.w.uib.no.

September 18, 2022: Entering the Ice

During the night, we enter the ice. We’re in new ice, ice that is forming currently. It has wonderful names: first year ice; Frazil ice - crystals of ice in the first couple of cm of the surface that makes the water look oily'; Grease ice - coagulated crystals that form a soup layer and give the surface a matte look; Nilas ice - a thin crust of ice that is elastic and bends in the waves; Pancake ice - small circular pieces of ice with raised rims.

The forms created by the ice are infinite and I find them to be extraordinary and magnificent. I’m very excited to be in the ice for the next few weeks. 8:00 pm - I’m adding to today’s blog. The light remains low for hours at a time when it’s out. We’ve been in heavy fog, overcast, and now, it’s clear with the sun very low in the sky that gives relief to the textures in the ice. It’s clear to the horizon in all directions. We’ll enter the pack ice in a day or so. Even now, the ship at times, lurches as it rides over and breaks thicker ice.

Small pool, approximately 20 feet across, in the new ice

Long crack in the ice with small floes in foreground

Abstract ice forms

Grease Ice

Grease Ice with small Floes

One piece of Pancake ice in foreground of image

September 13 – 16, 2022: Reflections on the Trip and Life Aboard the Healy

I haven’t really written any general comments about the trip, so here goes. The trip has been great., all that I’d hoped for. Virtually everyone on the ship wants to be here from the captain and his crew to the scientists, and their tech support people. It makes for a terrific dynamic. The crew work very closely with the scientists, knowing that science is largely the mission of the Healy. Everyone works very hard. This is hands-on science, and the scientists are out on the fantail, working on equipment, often bare-handed in cold and wet weather, night and day, along with the crew. Equipment deployment is carefully coordinated with the bridge, with the Bosin, winch operators and other crew members, technicians, and the scientists. All are present during the deployments. Deployments are also watched on monitors in the science lab, on the bridge and in other locations. Other work goes on night and day in the labs.

Many of the scientists and the tech people work complicated schedules, 12 am to 12 pm, 2 am – 2 pm, etc., so overlaps are sometimes brief. Meals are on a fixed schedule with breakfast from 0645 – 0745, lunch from 1100 – 1200, dinner from 1700-1800 and midrats (from midnight rations) from 2330 to 00:30. The food is very good and abundant, and the cooks work hard to vary the menu. Food is served cafeteria style, and everyone eats at the same mess.

The sun isn’t getting much over 20 degrees over the horizon. As we go north in the ice, it will disappear entirely and we’ll be in 24 hour darkness.

I’ll continue with the writing in future posts. In the next day or so, we will go out of internet range so my posts will have fewer and lower resolution images that will be posted via the ship’s email to one of my sons. Last, we were fortunate to be way north of the megastorm that hit the Bering Sea over the last couple of days.

Map of the science stations where the science work is done. The bottom of the map starts above Utqiagvik at the top of Alaska (shown in Gray); the top is the North Pole. Our trip started over 700 miles south of Utqiagvik, Alaska in Dutch Harbor far out in the Aleutians.

September 13 & 14

We saw our first bands of ice. I’m posting two more photographs from Day 12.

A sea star remaining after the mud from the bottom was collected and hosed away,

The Multi-net being retrieved. Its nets are opened at different depths

September 15

We’re back in opens seas, I’m posting a seascape and an abstract image that includes one of the equipment lines in the water.

The Arctic Ocean early in the morning.

Abstract seascape with the winch line in the water.

September 16

Though we passed through a bit of ice a couple of days ago, this morning, we went through several bands of ice and for the first time, the Healy pushed through. It was exciting and beautiful to see. Later, we turned east to get back to the track for the science track, but soon, we will be in multiyear ice. The sun is now very low in the sky, not going above about 20 degrees above the horizon. It makes for beautiful light when there is sun. The temperature is getting lower, too. This morning, September 17, it’s 21 degrees F. with 20 kt/hour wind.

September 10 – 12, 2022: Deploying the Mudgrabber in the Chuchi Sea and more

September 11, 2022

The science teams took samples and cores from the shallow waters of the Chukchi Sea north of the Bering Strait. The samples were taken with a Van Veen clamshell mud grabber and a multicorer that drops several tubes approximately 30 cm into the mud. Both are used to look at small organisms. Mud samples from the Van Veen clamshell are hosed down in a box with a screen to retain the larger organisms.

Van Veen mud grabber

Multicorer

Sealife at bottom of screen after mud is washed away includes clams, crustaceans, and sea worms

September 11, 2022

The first order of day the was to pick up two people who had flown into Utqiaġvik, Alaska, as well as a piece of scientific equipment. The seas were choppy when the cutter boat left for the pick-up.

Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska with cutter returning to Healy

Cutter boat returning to Healy with former hanger in distance, Utqiaġvik , Alaska

September 12, 2022

September 12 was the start of a series of days of intensive scientific work along a N.E. line, before we turn north toward the Pole. Multiple deployments of the CTD which measures conductivity (salinity), temperature, depth, chlorophyll, oxygen, etc. and the VPR (Video Plankton Recorder) were made which takes closeup videos of sea life as were the Van Veen (clamshell) and the multicorer, both of which sample mud from the bottom. The depth was approximately 50 meters. The Mnet (multinet) and ring nets were also deployed to collect plankton and other small sealife. 

Preparing for deployment of the Video Plankton Recorder

Deploying the CTD (note information on digital board)

September 7 – 9, 2022: Helicopter Landings and Collecting and Deploying Instruments

September 7 was exciting. In the morning, a Coast Guard MH-60T flew to the Healy for training and to pick up two people leaving the ship. I was allowed in the helicopter control office and in the immediate area outside to photograph the ops. The team made several landings and they also hooked a load to carry beneath the helo. Perhaps the most exciting part of the training was watching the crew on the Healy set up and initiate mid-air refueling as the ship and copter moved along in tandem.

On September 8 & 9, the scientific work intensified. In the afternoon, in fog and choppy seas, several of the Coast Guard crew went out in a cutter boat to pick up sets of instruments from three different moorings. The instruments were tethered to the bottom to old train wheels, and it was a tense time, for Seth Danielson, a scientist from the University of Alaska Fairbanks while he waited to see the floats with equipment pop up from their anchorages. Everything was recovered safely, and on September 9, the process was done in reverse as multiple instruments were deployed by cranes into the churning seas.

Figure 1- Coast Guard MH-60T approaching the Healy

    Figure 2 - Crew members tie down the helicopter after landing on deck

Figure 3 - The Landing Signal Officer (LSO) gives direction to the pilot for takeoff

Figure 4 - Helicopter hoists a cargo load from the deck of the Healy

Figure 5 - Crew members tend the refueling hose as the ship conducts a Helicopter In-Flight Refuel (HIFR)

Figure 6 – Healy crew bringing recovered instruments and equipment aboard the ship

Figure 7 - Guard crew returning to Healy after picking up sets of instruments from three different moorings

Figure 8 – Science team members working on recovered float

Figure 9 – Science team members deploying equipment at a mooring

Figures 10 & 11 – Instruments being deployed at a mooring site (note former train wheel used as anchor)

September 4 – 6, 2022: Images of Our First Days Aboard

I’m posting a few images from the day we boarded the USCGC Healy (WAGB 20) as well as our departure and as we got underway. It’s fascinating to watch the ship’s operations, ranging from work on the bridge to moving equipment onto and around the ship. The operations are precise and well executed. The food is abundant and excellent.

We’ve in open seas since leaving Dutch Harbor. We will pass through the Bering Strait and past Little Diomede (Alaska) and Big Diomede (Siberia) which are approximately two miles apart and are also separated by the International Date Line.

Part of the fishing fleet at Dutch Harbor

Bald Eagle Protecting Nest and Young Birds, across from our mooring.

One of the two tugs that helped the ship make a turn as we pulled away from the dock.

Stern of the Healy, from where most of the scientific equipment is deployed.

View of the Bridge and the crew as we departed from Dutch Harbor.

September 3 – 4, 2022: Settling in

Yesterday was my first day living aboard the Healy. The science people were busy setting up their labs and getting equipment on board and on the deck ready to deploy. We depart around noon today. I’m including a video from my drive into the mountains above Dutch Harbor a couple of days ago.

Looking toward Ugadaga Bay, Unalaska Island in the distance

September 2, 2022: First Boarding on the Healy & Overland Drive in the Rain

This morning, we all boarded the Healy. The science people began setting up their equipment, some of which is massive. Everyone or every project has several feet of counter space. I have a small space in a room with several laptops for the use of the science team. We had our first meal on board which was excellent.

In the afternoon, I repeated yesterday’s trip on Overland Drive. The landscape was very different as it was overcast and rainy. It was interesting to see the changes from the previous day.

View North toward Ugdaga Bay

Cliffs, Summer Bay

September 1, 2022: Along The Overland Drive

Took a 15 mile drive over and around the mountains and coast around Dutch Harbor. The photographs tell the story.

Looking towards Split Top Mountain

Glacial Lake

Spawning Salmon, Morris Cove Creek

August 30 – 31: From Anchorage to Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, Aleutian Islands, Alaska

After overnighting in Anchorage, I flew to Dutch Harbor which is about 700 miles west of Anchorage in the Aleutian Islands. After picking up my car, I drove to my VRBO studio which is lovely. Dutch Harbor is the largest fishing port in the United States and is a lively small town.

In the morning, I hiked up to the Aleutian WWII National Historic Area with a young earth sciences graduate student at Columbia University. The views were spectacular; the mountains are almost an electric green, the ocean a deep turquoise, with views of long extinct volcanos and volcanic cones.

On the way down, we met a crew member from USCG Healy, the icebreaker that will be my home for the 55-day trip to the North Pole and back. It’s a large ship and I’m very excited about being aboard it. Back at the Grand Aleutian Hotel, I met several of the scientists who will be on the Healy. At the hotel tonight is the all-you-can-eat king crab fest. I’ll also meet the chief scientists and others who will be on the Healy.

August 29 – 30, 2022: From Brooklyn to Dutch Harbor, Alaska

I leave for Dutch Harbor tomorrow where I’ll have several days to photograph on this island far out in the Aleutians. From September 4 to October 28, 2022, I will be journeying from Dutch Harbor to the North Pole and back on the USCG Healy, an icebreaker devoted to scientific research. I will have the privilege of photographing the science and scientists on the ship, the operations of the USCG crew, and doing my own fine art photography.

August 28, 2022

2016 image of the Aurora near Fairbanks, AK