The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat opens a call for one Swedish Early Career scientist to join the Norwegian Arctic Ocean Research cruise 2023.
In March, it is still low season at Abisko Scientific Research Station. About ten researchers have been on-site during the winter, but the number gradually increases during the spring.
During this year's Arctic expedition with the icebreaker Oden, the researchers want to document the transition between winter and summer. This goal requires flexible planning and, based on weather forecasts, being able to move Oden to places where warm air enters the Arctic.
The artist Ida Rödén will participate in this year's research expedition with the icebreaker Oden. Along for the ride is Jonas Falck, a fictional scientist who considered himself one of Carl von Linné's apostles ‒ but was never accepted by Linné. Ida Rödén has explored the world with Jonas Falck since 2014. She has sometimes thought that the work with the scientist is over. But every time she has set a point and shifted focus, something new has begun to loom. The exploration continues, and this time, the two companions will visit the Arctic Ocean.
Every summer, part of the Arctic sea ice melts away, and the melting season is becoming longer. Since the end of the last century, the area covered by ice at the end of summer has gradually decreased, and today, the area is less than half of what it was at the end of the 1970s. To study the arrival of spring in the Arctic – when it comes and how it happens – this year's research expedition with the icebreaker Oden is being carried out earlier than usual.
The amount of fish in the central Arctic Ocean is very limited. Therefore, the fish stock needs to be protected when the Arctic Ocean becomes increasingly accessible due to melting sea ice. Pauline Leijonmalm, Chief Scientist during the Oden Expedition Synoptic Arctic Survey 2021, can look back on a successful expedition where the researchers could collect valuable data about the ecosystem in the Arctic.
In the oceans, there are viruses that infect bacteria. Even though they have a major impact on our ecosystems, the research in this area is limited, especially from Arctic environments. Researchers who participated in the Synoptic Arctic Survey 2021 expedition are currently studying this. They want to understand how environmental pollution and climate change affect viruses, bacteria, and ecosystems in the future.
To explain the reasons for the rapid warming in the Arctic, measurements of the atmosphere are needed. On the icebreaker Oden, researchers within the ACAS project have developed an atmospheric observatory to be able to study factors such as changes in clouds and the interactions between the surface and the atmosphere.
