Nortek Aquadopp joins Arctic cruise with Explorers Club scientist
- Perspectives
Leveraging commercial cruises for scientific data collection
The Arctic is a particularly challenging place for field work for ocean scientists. Beyond the difficulties posed by frigid temperatures, small weather windows and otherwise challenging environmental conditions, deploying environmental sensors in polar regions is notoriously expensive and often involves large-scale projects and collaborations.
Commercial Arctic cruises provide a rare but valuable opportunity for oceanographic data to be collected in the Arctic outside of these larger research expeditions. Dr. Adrian McCallum of the University of the Sunshine Coast recently joined the PONANT In the Ice of the Arctic cruise in June and July of 2024. PONANT, a luxury cruise line, has a partnership with the Explorers Club, a group whose goal is to support scientific expeditions. Through this program, Dr. McCallum was selected as the Science Grant awardee to join the cruise. McCallum used the opportunity and access to the hard-to-reach Arctic to collect ADCP and CTD data which can be used to improve ocean circulation models, among other things.
“My goal was to gather oceanographic data (CTD and ADCP) from places rarely visited and to show how valuable scientific data can be obtained from cruises such as this one,” explains McCallum. McCallum’s role on the cruise also included engaging with other cruise guests for both educational lectures on board and informal discussion throughout the duration of the cruise.
The 17-day cruise starts in Reykjavik, Iceland and finishes in Longyearbyen, Norway on the island of Svalbard, stopping along Greenland on the way.
Opportunistic deployment of an Aquadopp Generation 2
McCallum brought with him a Nortek Aquadopp Generation 2, which he deployed opportunistically throughout the cruise. Whenever the ship shopped for an extended duration to allow guests to walk on the ice or go ashore, McCallum would pack up the Aquadopp and other sensors for deployments at distances far enough away from the vessel to avoid interference.
“My goal was to obtain shallow water column velocity information in rarely sampled locations, to provide insight and assist in constraining [ocean] circulation models,” says McCallum.
In-situ data like that collected by McCallum during the cruise is invaluable to improving and validating large-scale oceanographic models, and this ground-truth data in hard-to-reach areas is difficult to come by.
McCallum deployed the Aquadopp on a nylon rope through holes he drilled through the sea ice for periods typically 1-2 hours in duration. Daily deployment opportunities were managed to align with the ship’s progress and activities.
Future data analysis and exploration of remote areas
McCallum will analyze ADCP and CTD data collected on the trip in collaboration with students at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
“My hope is that an Honours student will examine the data in 2025; their job will be to examine the data initially in isolation, and then compare the data with other published records and any modeled projections for the areas that were examined,” he explains.
McCallum is an advocate for finding creative and financially feasible ways to explore the Arctic. He has previously written about the potential for leveraging smaller-scale, privately-funded polar expeditions as ways to gather data in these hard-to-access areas.
“My goal is to continue gathering data in locations and at times where we still have insufficient data coverage,” he says. “My primary goal here is to provide ‘ground truth’ data so that we can better constrain our models to generate more accurate future projections.”
Before his cruise with PONANT, McCallum crossed the Greenland Ice Sheet to conduct glaciological research in May of 2024. Read more about that project here.
McCallum would like to acknowledge the support of PONANT, the Explorers Club, and the University of the Sunshine Coast.
