DIRECTORY ENTRY: Catlin Arctic Survey

Catlin Arctic Survey is a unique collaboration between scientists and explorers to undertake field research in the Arctic.

While there is much debate about our changing environment, one thing is absolutely clear: we need more factual information. The Catlin Arctic Survey enables the monitoring, measuring and collection of information to improve scientific understanding of the processes involved in, and the impacts of, climate change.

On this third Catlin Arctic Survey, scientists and explorers are examining the surface layers of the Arctic Ocean. They are researching how changes within the seawater beneath the floating sea ice may be affecting powerful ocean currents that influence prevailing climate and weather patterns worldwide.

Increased levels of freshwater from melting sea ice, ice caps and glaciers, and warming Arctic waters, may radically unbalance the processes which sustain the most significant of these currents: what is known as thermohaline circulation.

The Catlin Arctic Survey is focused on the impact of this increased freshening of the Arctic Ocean’s water, and the potential changes this could cause to Earth’s global ocean circulation system.

In parallel, scientists from the US, UK and Canada are conducting experiments at a unique research station on the frozen Arctic Ocean with the support of experienced polar explorers and guides.