The research team of the Canadian Arctic expedition vessel, CCGS Amundsen, canceled the planned voyage and postponed the Arctic climate change study. Arctic sea ice's unexpected motion prevented the trip.
The aim of the Arctic climate change study was to monitor the impacts of the climate change on the coastal ecosystem and the Arctic marine. The motion of the sea ice in the Arctic area can make the voyage very dangerous for both the expedition vessel and its scientists. The name of this project is BaySys or the Hudson Bay System Study.
This Arctic climate change project includes 40 scientists from the five universities of Canada, Newsweek reported. It was a four-year project that was supported by $17 million. The Canadian Coast Guard and the famous University of Manitoba have been making the Arctic climate change study easier for the last 15 years.
The Canadian Research Icebreaker, CCGS Amundsen, contains 22 portable laboratories, a good number of instruments, and sixty-five scientific systems. All these facilities together help the researchers to explore the ocean ecosystems, the key part of the Arctic climate change study. The study of this ecosystem includes the atmosphere, the ice, and snow above the Arctic seafloor, and also the condition below the ice.
The preparation was to start the 2017 expedition six days before the scheduled date. But the chief scientist of the expedition, David Barber, realized that it was impossible to carry on the trip. The scientist understood that due to the increasing temperature in the Arctic region a hazardous sea ice has an unexpected southward motion. It could create problems for the CCGS Amundsen to reach the required destination in time to perform the Arctic climate change study.
David Barber opined that the increasing trend of the temperatures decreases the thickness as well as the context of the sea ice. This condition ultimately enhanced the mobility of the ice that halted the Arctic climate change study. It is obvious that more variability of the ice conditions will be visible in future days. Barber revealed that they canceled the BaySys mission due to the present ice condition and the increasing demand for ice escort and the search-and-rescue operations.
The research team expects to restart the Arctic climate change study in 2018. The team gathered comprehensive dataset about the physics of the ocean, atmosphere, and ice, in the required area, Phys.org reported. This dataset will help Canada to learn the said ice conditions and to prepare for the climate change.
The research study of the team has pointed out that climate change already exists, and it is not that it will happen in future. Now one important thing is though, the team canceled the Arctic climate change study, but the important oceanographic studies will go on as planned. Climate change has not only affected the Arctic Ocean but also, the people residing in the south part of Canada.
