From Angelika (NPI), Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard, 29 April

After a week’s break between cruises, the Norwegian Polar Institute sea ice group is out again for more work on the ice north of Svalbard.

Icebreaker KV Svalbard (credits: A. Renner)

Currently, we are waiting to get the helicopter for EM-bird flights onboard – cross your fingers that the clouds lift a bit!

A short trip into the pack ice yesterday showed us how different the ice edge is now. Only two weeks after our last station in the same area, there is now lots of broken ice, brash, and only small floes, which are difficult to work on and not really suitable for CryoSat calibration and validation work.

As soon as the helicopter arrives, we will head northeast to find some better ice for extensive stations, which will hopefully be coordinated with Polar-5 and Twin Otter overflights.