New data, released by the Catlin Arctic Survey and WWF, provides further evidence of thinning Arctic Ocean sea ice, supporting the emerging thinking that the Ocean will be largely ice-free in summer within a decade. Read more ...
Catlin Arctic Survey
The Catlin Arctic Survey has returned from the ice
Watch behind the scenes action from the trip on Youtube, join the Catlin Arctic Survey team on Facebook or follow their journey on Twitter
Journeying across the ice
From late February until mid-May, a team of 3 people from Britain journeyed by foot across the disintegrating Arctic Ice Pack. Starting in Resolute in Canada’s high Arctic Islands, the team headed for the North Pole. The team was driven by a mission: to measure the thickness of the sea ice, and help scientists predict the future for this vast, beautiful, and threatened part of the Earth.WWF supported this expedition because we are concerned about the future of the Arctic sea ice. The ice is on a downward trend, and is predicted to disappear in the summer within a generation. This will likely have severe consequence for the Arctic animals and people that have relied on that sea ice for generations. The disappearance of the ice is also having a global effect.
WWF Ice Factsheet [doc, 1.47 MB].
WWF is working on Arctic climate change issues – find out more.
Find out more about the Catlin Arctic Survey, and the team.
Latest Catlin Arctic Survey news
'Gruelling' Catlin Arctic Survey comes to an end
14 May 2009: Two Twin Otter planes landed at 1750 hours BST on May 13 at a landing strip on the floating arctic ocean sea ice to collect the Catlin Arctic Survey Ice Team at the end of their gruelling 73-day scientific survey. » Read more
The countdown begins
12 May 2009: With the floating sea ice now starting to break up around Ward Hunt Island, it is only a matter of time before the summer melt begins further out into the ocean, including around the Catlin Arctic Survey Ice Team’s location, writes online communications staff member Dominic Hilton. As such, the countdown to the end of the expedition phase has now begun. » Read more
Monitoring endangered species
04 May 2009: In this update, a discussion of different methods of developing and implementing non-invasive and cost-effective methods of monitoring endangered species, why the weather has become an obsession for the Catlin Arctic Survey team, and why it's the little things that make the difference in an ambitious project like this one.
» Read more
The power of the ice
28 Apr 2009: In this blog extract, members of the Catlin Arctic Survey team reveal what it’s like to be surrounded by frozen water, watching huge chunks of ice ‘pushed around like sugar cubes’; discuss the results of the ice data they have collected in the first month of the expedition, and reveal how their circadian rhythms are being affected by 24-hour daylight. » Read more
Arctic team gives up on ice radar
16 Apr 2009: Half-way through their expedition to survey the Arctic sea-ice, the Catlin Arctic Survey team have been jinxed by yet more technical problems and are resorting to old-fashioned techniques to carry out research. » Read more
Ice and isolation in the Arctic
3 April, 2009: How do the Catlin Arctic Survey team, who are currently en route to the North Pole and measuring the extent of sea ice along the way, keep in communication with the outside world and, importantly, how do they keep motivated in the face of such extreme conditions? » Read more
Spring in our step
24 March, 2009: Various members of the Catlin Arctic Survey team are blogging about their journey to the North Pole to measure the thickness of the arctic sea ice. In this latest instalment, as outside temperatures rise to -24C, life has become 'bearable again' as the team settle into their routine and get back on schedule after their initial delay.
» Read more
Catlin Arctic Survey team on the move again
19 March, 2009: The Catlin Arctic Survey team are relieved as, after five days of waiting, their resupply plane finally arrives. Ann Daniels, team navigator, waxes lyrical with her favourite poem which explains why "It's the plugging away that will win you the day", and expedition leader Pen Hadow has an audio message for readers to listen to.
» Read more
Satellite images reveal huge rift in floating sea ice
18 March, 2009: Catlin Arctic Survey polar explorers Pen Hadow, Martin Hartley and Ann Daniels are surviving on half rations as attempts to resupply them were abandoned for the third day running by the Catlin Arctic Survey. » Read more
'The raw and savage beauty of the arctic ocean'
10 March 2009: Members of the Catlin Arctic Survey team are blogging regularly about their experiences traversing the ice (and waters) of the Arctic Ocean. In this installment: Pen Hadow addresses the Department for International Development Conference, Ann Daniels describes an unusual form of support for the enterprise, and it is generally agreed that despite the hardships and inhospitability of the Arctic, the team wouldn't have it any other way.
» Read more
Find out more
© Catlin Arctic Survey / Martin Hartley
Testing equipment that will be used for the Catlin Arctic Survey
Measuring the size of the problem... 2 million times
The Catlin Arctic Survey is a ground-breaking venture, which aims to measure the thickness of the arctic sea ice cap along a complete traverse from 80°N and 140°W to the North Pole.
It is the first detailed mapping of the sea ice with state-of-the-art impulse radar technology. Satellites and submarines currently provide the scientific community with such data, but this is respectively imprecise and patchy, and critically, neither method can distinguish between the snow layer and the sea ice beneath.The scientific community has concluded that the only way to gather accurate measurements of the ice cap is by travelling across its surface. The Catlin Arctic Survey will significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of computer models forecasting the timing of the ice cap’s disappearance, and the associated impacts on the global climate. Current estimates for the North Pole ice cap’s total disappearance vary from 100 years down to just 5.
The expedition will be carried out between February and June 2009 by a small team of extremely experienced polar explorers, led by Pen Hadow. Pen was the first person to trek solo and unsupported from Canada to the North Geographic Pole, and the first Briton to trek unsupported to both Poles. The explorers will be travelling on foot, hauling their sledges across 1,200km of disintegrating and shifting sea ice for over 120 days in temperatures as low as –50°C, swimming areas of open water where necessary. The portable ice penetrating radar attached to one of the sledges will gather over 2 million ice thickness measurements.
The Catlin Arctic Survey will form an essential part of WWF’s work to protect the Arctic, raising awareness around the world about the plight of the Arctic, the impact of climate change, and the need to secure radical CO2 emission reductions.
