During the 9th Arctic Science Examination in China, the team recently completed the important part of the expedition - the unmanned ice station observation system funded by the state key research and development project was successfully deployed at the long-term ice station in the central Arctic Ocean.
It is worth mentioning that ice stations are located on Arctic floating ice. Why do we need to deploy on floating ice? How is ice station located? What are the risks of setting up ice stations?
The most difficult thing is to choose a strong floating ice.
Ice stations are divided into two types, short-term ice stations refer to ice stations that last for several hours, mainly for basic environmental data and sample collection; long-term ice stations refer to ice stations that last for several days, mainly for process observation and research.
Bian Lingen, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences who has made many Arctic expeditions, told Sci-Tech Daily that setting up observation stations on the Arctic Ocean ice floes and conducting comprehensive observations are important means to study the rapid changes in the Arctic. Since 2008, China's Arctic Expedition Team has deployed automatic meteorological observatories transmitting data by satellite in the Arctic.
The northern hemisphere summer, which was carried out by scientific expedition members, was also the most severe melting stage of Arctic sea ice. Especially in recent years, as Arctic warming continues to accelerate the rate of summer sea ice melting, the Arctic Ocean sea ice appears to be fragmented, even if found relatively large floating ice, there are often a lot of ice surface melting pools of large and small.
It is difficult to find an ideal floating ice capable of setting up a station. Helicopters are usually used for reconnaissance. He Jianfeng, director of the Polar Oceanography Research Institute of the China Polar Research Center, told reporters that for safety reasons, the ice floes used for the construction of the station should be relatively flat, with a certain thickness. At the same time, there should be no more melting pools on the surface of the sea ice and no more ice cracks on the surface of the sea ice; secondly, there should be a certain area of the sea ice, so that it is relative in summer. It's not easy to melt, and it's easy to be divided into different survey areas that are not affected by each other; finally, you have to choose areas with relatively high latitudes, where unmanned observation equipment can operate for a relatively long time.
Because of the complexity and unpredictability of the sea ice process, even if a suitable ice floe station was found at that time, the unmanned observation equipment left on the ice station would face various risks such as ice surface cracking in subsequent operation. Bian Lingen said that relying on six sets of drifting automatic meteorological observation equipment deployed in China's Arctic scientific expedition, the shortest "survived" for only five months and the longest lived for up to one year.
Daily work of ice station operation -- "bear prevention"
After searching for suitable ice floes, the members of the scientific team carried out their work from the ship to the ice surface by gangway or boat, or by helicopter to find suitable sea ice stations in a distant area.
The Arctic Ocean is the home of polar bears, and Arctic ice floes are the main platform for polar bears to move, because they have their delicious food, seals. Because of this, during the ice station operation, to ensure safety, a core task of the inspection team is to prevent bears.
During the scientific examination, the team took two "apple houses" with the ship, which were hoisted to the site by helicopter during the ice operation. "Ping Guo house" is a spherical device made of glass fiber reinforced plastics. It is designed to be green for striking. Because the shape is like apple, the inspecting members kindly call it "Ping Guo house". Its area is 6 square meters, it can prevent rain and snow, has the function of general tent, but it is more solid. The floor is a waterproof floor. Once the sea ice breaks into the water, it can still float on the water.
There is another story to build "Ping Guo house". He Jianfeng, who participated in China's third Arctic expedition, said that during the ice station operation, the team members were harassed by many polar bears. One of the most dangerous visits was when a polar bear visited a cotton tent on the ice. Fortunately, the bears guards warned the bears in advance and the members of the team had evacuated the tent. After the disaster, the team promptly concluded that cotton tents, although warm, but not bear-proof, "apple house" came into being, and has become the standard for long-term Arctic scientific research ice station operations.
Source: Guangming Daily