Image of the month: January 2019
Expedition to the Siberian Arctic
Our picture of the month shows the Russian research icebreaker AKADEMIK TRYOSHNIKOV in the Arctic Ocean. In the foreground two students of the German-Russian Master programme POMOR take samples from the sea ice. in the late summer of 2018, AKADEMIK TRYOSHNIKOV spent two months in the Siberian Arctic. During the international expedition, in which 46 scientists participated, extensive research work was carried out in the water column and on the pack ice at 137 stations. The researchers gained a comprehensive insight into the course and oceanographic properties of the boundary current in the Siberian Arctic.
In this region the transpolar ice drift system starts and it therefore plays a key role for ice formation in the entire Arctic. In spring and summer, the Siberian currents also bring large quantities of fresh water to the region. These processes lead to the formation of water masses of different densities on the shallow Siberian shelf, which in turn influence the comparatively warm circumarctic boundary current at the continental margin. This boundary current transports warm water from the Atlantic Ocean along the continental slope, which could potentially melt the entire Arctic sea ice cover if it reached into the surface water masses.
Read more on the website of...
... the poject "Changing Arctic Transpolar System" CATS
... the Russian-German Master programme POMOR
... the expedition website of GEOMAR
