Deliverable 1.12 Collaboration with Arctic Shipping Operators

This report describes the experiences working with the Norwegian Coast Guard ship KV Svalbard and the expedition ship Le Commandant Charcot during the INTAROS and CAATEX projects.

The first part of the report deals with our experiences working with the Norwegian Coast Guard. The coast guard has supported Norwegian research institutes over many decades and made tremendous contribution to Norwegian polar and ocean research. The report describes complex operations carried out in 2019 and in 2020 with KV Svalbard as part of the INTAROS and CAATEX projects. Our experiences in organising two Useful Arctic Knowledge research schools in 2020 and 2021 onboard KV Svalbard are also presented. The report comes with recommendations for collaboration with the Norwegian Coast Guard.

Secondly, the report describes our experiences working with the commercial cruise operator PONANT. PONANT has 13 cruise ships operating around the world, including the Arctic and Antarctica. In 2021 they had their first expedition to the North Pole with their new icebreaker Le Commandant Charcot. During this cruise they carried out a dry test to test their operational capability, test and evaluate the guest facilities bringing several invited guests, as well as the research facilities onboard bringing a group of scientists. The science team consisted of two scientists from INTAROS/ NERSC, two scientists from IFREMER (France), one scientist from MIT (USA), one scientist from NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), and two scientists from University of Tromsø–The Arctic University of Norway (UiT).

The science team carried out several observing programs. INTAROS deployed Snow and Ice Mass Balance buoys (SIMBA), drifting buoys for temperature and pressure observations, contributed to an oceanographic section from the North Pole and to the coast of Svalbard using XBT probes,and collected passive acoustic measurements. IFREMER deployed two Argo floats at the North Pole, contributed to the North Pole oceanographic section, deployed drifting buoys,and tested new weather balloons for atmospheric measurements. NTNU was testing accuracy of new positioning satellites. UiT participated in the Search and Rescue project. In this report we describe the INTAROS observing programs and the experiences collaborating with personnel onboard a commercial cruise ship.