"Aranda" Leaves for
Arctic Ocean Study

Posted March 27, 2003

There was a flurry of activity on the deck of the Finnish marine research vessel, the Aranda, on Tuesday morning. Last-minute preparations for a voyage to northern waters - Spitsbergen, and the Arctic Ocean - were underway.
Professor Jouko Launiainen of the Finnish Institute of Marine Research carried the last of his belongings into his cabin. He will not be sailing at the very beginning of the journey: instead, he will meet the group next week when the Aranda reaches Tromsø, Norway, which is the real starting point for the Arctic Ocean expedition of 12 Finnish researchers.

The Aranda will be taking part in an international study on ice and climate in the Arctic Ocean, west of Spitsbergen. The purpose is to collect data to make it easier to forecast what will happen to sea ice in Arctic regions in the coming decades. The causal relationships between ice and climate remain unknown. For instance, it is not yet known if the perceived reduction in sea ice is limited to certain areas, or if it affects the Arctic as a whole.
Professor Launiainen hopes that the expedition will shed new light on how the atmosphere moves ice, packs it together, and pushes it south of the Fram Straits. As much as 150,000 cubic metres of ice push south through the Fram Straits every second. The amount is equivalent to the flow of water into the Arctic Ocean from the rivers of Siberia.
The ice cover on the Arctic Ocean has grown thinner in the past couple of decades. However, Launiainen feels that fears that the summer ice on the sea might disappear are excessively gloomy.
"The Arctic ice has not simply melted; apparently an unusually strong atmospheric cyclone has caused the ice to pile up and move to a different place. This has been seen - somewhat one-sidedly - as the melting of the ice cover", Launiainen says.
Even if the Arctic region were to warm up as the result of climatic change, Launiainen does not see the melting of ice on the sea as a credible scenario for the future. "What is happening is a redistribution of ice, caused by the climate."

The last items to be taken on board the Aranda were tanks of helium used to fill weather observation balloons. "We will be letting a balloon go every three hours during three weeks", says Launiainen, the head of the expedition. The balloons will register phenomena such as wind speed and direction, as well as air temperature and humidity. Atmospheric structure has to be known in the study of the impact of the climate on the ice cover.
The engines of the Aranda were turned on at noon, and the ship began its journey to the North Atlantic. While en route, those on board will study the strength of the surge of salt water from the Atlantic into the Baltic Sea, which began in January. The oxygen-rich ocean water has reached the Swedish island of Gotland in the southern part of the Baltic.
In about a week the Aranda will be in the north, facing temperatures of about -20° C. After the Fram Straits the team will encounter ice up to four metres thick.
The researchers will return soon after Easter, and the ship will be back in Finland by May.

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