At the end of August, researchers from the University of New Hampshire were in the midst of a six week tour of the Arctic Ocean. One of them, Kevin Jerram, has been on several mapping expeditions before. His main research focus is the detection and characterization of marine gas seeps. The other researcher happened to be a 2015-2016 scholar at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping Joint Hydrographic Center. Her name is Evgenia Bazhenova, and she studies marine sediment cores in the central part of the Arctic Ocean.
Myself, Jerram, Bazhenova, and nearly 70 other personnel took six weeks to travel through the Arctic Ocean on the Swedish icebreaker Oden, and they made a special stop in the North Pole. Below are some of the beautiful pictures from this stop, taken by Jerram himself:
- The CCOM scientists are supporting the geophysical mapping component of this expedition, which includes sonar mapping of the seafloor, water column and the upper sediment structure.
- A scientist’s notes.
- This show the processing of sonar data from CCOM researcher Tom Weber’s cutting-edge water column mapping system.
- An iceberg at the Petermann Glacier of northwest Greenland.
- Admiring the view.
- Taking breaks from work to admire the landscape.
- Polar Bears are curious creatures.