Sea ice. A characteristic feature of the Polar Regions. What do you picture when you think of sea ice? An extensive vastness of white, a few cute seals soaking up vitamin D, polar bears on the prowl? Would you believe that underneath their flippers and paws, is an ecosystem humming with life?

During the first two days in the Barents Sea, we completed our first crossing of the Polar Front, all the way from the warm, saline Atlantic waters in the south, to the cold and fresher Arctic waters in the north to map the location of the Polar Front.

It is said that we humans know more about the surface of the moon than the surface of our planet’s seafloor. If you knew how much we’re missing out! So much life and beauty can be found near the seabed.

Primary producers: ice algae and phytoplankton

For the first time in my life I am going to experience Phytoplankton blooming in Arctic. The vessel is soon ready to take us on board, and we are currently sitting in isolation at beautiful Sommarøy. My thoughts now are on the journey. How will it be?

The buzz and hassle have paused for a moment. I am under an ice ridge in the Arctic Ocean. There is 15 meters of sea ice over me and some 3000 meters of water below. The world around me is deep blue except for some white patches of ice and the blackness of the abyss under me. Silence. Desolation. Love.

Water, water everywhere on this blue planet. But there is also a dirtier side to the sea, because under the waves is solid (though often muddy) ground. Even dirt from land eventually reaches and lays to rest on the seafloor. The ground beneath the sea is in fact, critical for maintaining a healthy planet.

The Nansen Legacy Q2 cruise has its own dive team with four scientific divers from the Norwegian Polar Institute: Divers Mikko Vihtakari and Amalia Keck, Divers/Dive leaders Peter Leopold and Haakon Hop.

Imagine yourself lying on your back in a forest on a sunny spring day watching upwards to the tree tops. Warm rays of sunlight falling through the canopy warm your face and the song of birds echo in the distance. Now imagine all the tree trunks, branches and twigs are gone and just leaves floating lofty above you.

Some days you win, some days you lose. Your car keys. A single sock out of your favorite pair. A 200-metre long rope worth hundreds of thousands of kroner in equipment and samples. No? Just us?

Hello from another fine day from the largest research vessel in Norway – Kronprins Haakon. After having a delicious pizza lunch on board today, I came up to the 7th deck (yes that’s right, this boat has 10 decks), to write this blog in the conference room – a nice, cozy room with a great view. How is a girl from the south of India where winter is 20 degrees, surviving up here in the Arctic, you ask?

Life on board a research vessel has its own and unique rhythm. Time operates a little differently here, both because days are a bit intense with sample collection and analysis, but also because the ship simply has its own time zone. When doing research in the Arctic at this time of year, it is important to follow the sun as best you can. One consequence of this is that the higher powers on board RV Kronprins Haakon have decided that we will be two hours ahead of normal time on the Norwegian mainland. Sun is a precious resource in the Arctic in March, so in order to make the most of each day, we simply define the time ourselves.

It’s been a week since we left Tromsø. The Kronprins Haakon has very quickly become our home, and we are enjoying life onboard. After a couple of days through rough seas, things are calmer now. Fast steaming through open water has now changed into slow steaming through ice that needs to be broken for us to pass. Rough seas caused some of us to get seasick, but that is now long gone. Silent rocky seas have now changed into stable noisy ice. Breaking through 40-70 cm thick ice is not noiseless and earplugs are now a must in the lower parts of the ship if you want to take a rest at any moment – day or night – whenever you are not working.

The story about 16 Nansen Legacy researchers on a cruise in the Arctic Ocean continues. This time we meet “The Captain” and a troublesome ice floe

When Gandalf the Grey was struck by the Barlog and fell into the depths of the mountain at the bridge of Khazad dum, the Fellowship despaired. They had lost and old friend and their guide. When the underwater robot Harald did not return to the surface after a routine mission, the scientists on board the R/V Kronprins Haakon despaired.

After almost a week on the Nansen Legacy winter process cruise, we now sail into the sea ice and stay there until we go south to Tromsø towards the end of February. A couple of days ago we saw the sun just above the horizon, and for us living in Longyearbyen it was a great moment of joy, having been four months without the sun!

We left Longyearbyen on Tuesday evening 12th of February and have sailed south and east in search of ice. After four days, R/V Kronprins Haakon has reached 35 degrees east. Pancake ice is the first stage in ice forming and a clear sign that there have been waves in swing. We will measure these waves with a small instrument that stands on a stake in front of the bow. We have tried already, but after two days in open sea, it was covered with so much ice from sea spray that we almost did not get the instrument back on deck.

On February 9th, R/V Kronprins Haakon departs on a winter process cruise to the Barents Sea in order to track and measure important processes taking place in the ocean during wintertime.

When ocean waters with different properties, such as temperature, salinity and density, meet, they form a “front”. Ocean fronts are often rich in productivity and marine life, with high zooplankton and fish larvae concentrations. This makes fronts attractive for fishing vessels for obvious reasons

I am privileged. I have worked in some of the most remote places on this planet, and I have seen forms of life that only few know of, some of which have not yet gotten a name.