MOSAiC Blog: Sights of the Arctic, Part 2

 
Published: 20 December 2019

Editor’s note: David Chu, operations manager for the second ARM Mobile Facility, recently returned from the first leg of the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition. Below are several MOSAiC photos taken by Chu, of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

MOSAiC installation team
Our first day in the ice, we took an ARM MOSAiC install team photo that included Matthew Shupe, MOSAiC’s co-coordinating scientist, in front of the Polarstern. From left to right: Matthew Shupe, Todd Houchens, Misha Krassovski, Juarez Viegas, Vagner Castro, Steele Griffiths, Janek Uin, Matt Boyer, Paul Ortega, Dean Greenamyer, and me.
Photo of Met City during MOSAiC
This is a “tiny planet” photo Dean Greenamyer and I took with my 360-degree camera at Met City. This is where all the meteorological instruments from ARM, the University of Colorado, Boulder, the University of Leeds, and others are installed on the sea ice.
Instruments installed within Met City
When not on a tiny planet, here is how the instruments look in Met City. From left to right, we have the ice communications and power distribution unit, present weather detector, Parsivel2 laser disdrometer, Pluvio2 weighing bucket rain gauge, ICERAD radiometer suite, and the “swing set” on which the sky and ground infrared thermometers, ground radiometers, and multifilter radiometer are mounted.
ICERAD radiometer suite during MOSAiC
ICERAD, the instrument suite formerly known as RADSYS, is out collecting data in frigid conditions.
Snowmobiling on the ice
My colleagues signal they are ready to go back to the ship for dinner via a snowmobile. While walking is possible, traveling via snowmobile is the preferred method to move between different research sites and the R/V Polarstern.

See more sights of the Arctic.