A summer at the top of the world: My journey to the Northwest Passage
Cynthia Garcia-Eidell, Ph.D. candidate, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago — Participant on the Northwest Passage Project research cruise on Jul. 16 — Aug. 6, 2019.
Introduction:
The Northwest Passage Project (NPP), launched back in 2016 and primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation aims to increase awareness and understanding of a changing Arctic. The project strives to conduct a research expedition taking place in summer (around the peak of Arctic sea ice minima) onboard Arctic seafaring vessels. This year, we are extremely lucky to be onboard the mighty RVIB ODEN of the Swedish Polar Secretariat as we cruise and break ice within and around the channels of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA).
The NPP expedition provides scientists and students with the opportunity to deploy all kinds of oceanographic instruments (CTDs, ROVs, UAVs, ship-based sensors, etc.) within this harsh and remote area to help understand how the waters of the CAA have changed as a consequence of the secular warming trend over the Arctic Circle. This year, the research has evolved and expanded to include elements of the natural system, such as physical oceanography, biogeochemistry of Arctic waters and…
