Introducing The Catlin Arctic Survey

Leading polar explorer Pen Hadow has confirmed the go-ahead for a major scientific expedition to measure the thickness of the remaining permanent Arctic Ocean sea ice - called The Catlin Arctic Survey.

Hadow had originally intended to set off in February 2008 but his departure date was delayed to complete additional technical and scientific work to ensure the project will deliver the most comprehensive range of observations and value to the scientific community.

This pioneering survey, which starts in February 2009, is a collaboration with leading scientists to help them more accurately assess the state of the rapidly receding Arctic sea ice in a fragile region already affected by climate change.

Current estimates as to how long ice will be a year-round feature around the North Pole vary considerably, with scientific predictions ranging between five and 100 years.  More accurate data, measured at the surface itself, is essential if scientists and decision-makers are to fully anticipate the potentially devastating impacts of near total sea ice loss each summer on millions of people across the world.

The project, to be known as the Catlin Arctic Survey, has amassed substantial financial backing for the £3m survey despite the gloom currently surrounding the world economy and has secured support from UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), WWF International and the Royal patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales.

Hadow and his technical team have developed new equipment specifically designed for the project, including an ice-penetrating radar and a data uplink system to transmit its findings to scientists direct from the ice via satellite.

On completion of the scientific project, the findings will be made available to inform international decision-makers gathering at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties, at Copenhagen, in 2009.

The team of three highly-experienced explorers – Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley as well as Hadow - will be travelling from mid-February to late-May, taking millions of readings of the thickness of the floating ice over a 1200 kilometres (750 miles) route. They will be pulling sledges and swimming between ice-floes from their start-point 470 miles offshore of northern Canada to the North Geographic Pole in temperatures from 0°C to -50°C.

Hadow said:

“Our physical efforts hauling the equipment over the surface will amass data in unprecedented detail. I have come to recognise by working with our scientific partners that the Arctic Ocean is not only an astonishingly beautiful place but a globally unique environment of immense significance to the balance of the Earth’s whole eco-system.”

The science programme was developed with some of the world’s leading experts and institutions studying the status and future of the Arctic Ocean’s polar pack ice including the US Naval Postgraduate School, the NASA ICESat Mission and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. It will help fill the current gap in existing measurement studies by satellites and submarines, which cannot differentiate between ice and snow layers.

Professor Wieslaw Maslowski, from the US Naval Postgraduate School said:

“We’ll be integrating the survey’s actual observations with same-day weather data to obtain near real time model estimates of sea ice conditions on a daily basis.

“In this way we can test the accuracy of our modelling of the ice’s thickness and re-assess our projections as to how long the surviving thicker ice is likely to last as a perennial feature”.

The survey programme the team will undertake during their trek will includes:

• 10 million surface measurements of the sea ice using a specially-built radar;
• Measurements of the water column under the sea ice and density measurements of the snow and ice;
• Taking samples of the water, snow, ice and air;
• Supplementary measurements of the thickness and density of both the ice and overlying snow layers by manually drilling through the sea ice.
• In advance of their departure, the team has begun a rigorous physical and psychological training programme that includes exercise sessions in a –50 degrees centigrade climate chamber, recreating Arctic conditions.

Hadow, who was the first, and only, person to ever trek solo and unsupported by aircraft from Canada to the North Pole, said:

“Experienced explorers are the only people who have the expertise to undertake a survey of this magnitude and help science in this way.”

Lloyd’s reinsurers and underwriters Catlin Group Ltd are the main sponsors of the survey. Stephen Catlin, chief executive of Catlin Group, said:

“As a speciality insurance/reinsurance company, the potential effects of global warming will have a direct impact on our business.

“Catlin is a company that manages risk based on hard facts, so we believe that this information is vital. The Catlin Arctic Survey will help inform all those who must plan for the potential effects of global warming.”