Catlin Arctic Survey Of Shrinking Polar Cap

Leading Polar explorer Pen Hadow, will be departing in February, to do an in depth investigation into the shrinking Polar Cap.  This pioneering survey is a collaboration with scientists to find out exactly how much the ice cap is actually receding and how long polar ice will be a year round event. 

The event has attracted quite a bit of backing by UNEP (United Nations Environment Program), The WWF, Lloyds and the Catlin Group underwriters , and the Prince of Wales, to the tune of three million pounds. The expedition will be fully equipped with ground breaking technology like the Ice Penetrating Radar and a data up-link so that the information gathered can be sent immediately to the scientists.  Hadow feels that during their freezing trek to the Pole that they will amass a huge amount of data and perform a million tests along the way. Upon completion of the expedition the information will be handed over to international decision-makers gathering at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties, at Copenhagen, in 2009.

Here is a quote from Pen Hadow:

“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.”

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 program that the team will undertake during their trek 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 program that includes exercise sessions in a  minus 50 degrees centigrade climate chamber, recreating Arctic conditions.

The Caitlin Group has also had a lot to do with the financing of the expedition.  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.”

When Insurance companies start spending money, to foresee disasters due to global warming in our future,  we think it is time everybody started to pay attention to the consequences of global warming and think about how to resolve this pending disaster to our planet and all of us.