The expedition was a collaboration between the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat. OATRC 2012 was associated with Sustainable Arctic Marine and Coastal Technology (SAMCoT), which is a centre for research-based innovation, initiated by the Research Council of Norway and hosted by NTNU.
In 2010 the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat and NTNU established a collaboration in polar research under the umbrella of the memorandum of understanding “Nordic Cooperation in Polar Research”. A first step in the collaboration was to perform this research cruise.
Scientific scope of work
The main scientific scope of the research cruise was:
- to study the physical and mechanical properties of sea ice and icebergs,
- to quantify the characteristics of sea-ice/icebergs drift and the influence of the metocean conditions,
- to assess the quality of weather forecast from recognised service providers,
- to evaluate the use of modern technologies in Arctic research, e.g. satellite sensors, micro drones, laser scanner etc.,
- to perform seabed mapping using the multibeam scanner on-board Oden,
- to study the icing phenomenon by measuring sea spray geometry, droplets, weather conditions etc.,
- to examine the performance and manoeuverability of Oden in different ice conditions and in open water in order to validate and calibrate the numerical models for floaters in ice,
- to study the interaction processes at the waterline between Oden and ice,
- to analyse the efficiency of different ice management scenarios, and
- to carry out several activities within the framework of Arctic environmental research, e.g. turbulence measurements, underwater noise measurements, marine mammal observations, etc.
The research activities was divided into three main work packages:
- WP0: Pre-Cruise Activities
- WP1: Metocean and Ice Data
- WP2: Ice Management and Ship Manoeuvring Data
Principal investigator
Sveinung Løset
Department of Civil and Transport Engineering, NTNU