1994 Arctic Ocean Section
-- Science Reports --
Walter Tucker
In 1896 the Norwegian scientist Fridjof Nansen completed his historic
drift across the Arctic Ocean in the ice-strengthened wooden ship Fram. Sev-
eral years after his epic scientific voyage, reflecting upon the activities and
achievements of Arctic scientists, Nansen predicted that the Arctic Ocean would
become the best known ocean on Earth. Sadly, a century later, it is the most
undersampled and least understood of the world's oceans. Canadian, U.S. and
Russian scientists have conducted specific investigations from drifting ice camps
and aircraft landings on the ice for many years, but the formidable ice cover of
the Arctic Ocean has prevented traditional comprehensive oceanographic
transects so common in other oceans of the world. Capable icebreaking vessels
equipped for scientific investigations have been available for little more than a
The CTD/
rosette being
lowered from
the Polar Sea.
FPO
Walter Tucker is from the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, New
Hampshire, U.S.A.
12
Previous Page
