| From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.tw.environment,clari.news.military,clari.tw.science,
clari.news.top
Subject: Ice breaker en route to North Pole
Date: 24 Jun 91 16:34:33 GMT
BOSTON (UPI) -- A Coast Guard ice breaker was en route to Norway
Monday to begin an historic research expedition to the North Pole, where
scientists from six nations will study global warming and climate
changes.
The 60,000 horsepower icebreaker Polar Star departed Boston at 6 a.m.
Sunday, loaded with equipment and supplies, the Coast Guard said Monday.
After several stops, the ship will arrive in Tromso, Norway, where
about 100 scientists and technicians will board it and two other ice
breakers for the 70-day International Arctic Ocean Expedition to the
North Pole.
Dr. Susumu Honjo of the Woods Oceanographic Institution in Woods
Hole, Mass., and Dr. Leonard Johnson of the Navy's office of Naval
research in Washington will lead the expedition of oceanographers,
meteorologists, satellite experts and technicians from the U.S., Norway,
Canada, Japan, Germany and Sweden.
A key purpose of the trip is environmental security, in particular to
try to answer questions about global warming and climatic changes in the
Northern Hemisphere.
Neal Thayer, the Coast Guard's director of ice operations research in
Washington, has said the researchers will examine cloud formation in the
Arctic, formation of the crust on the ocean floor under the Arctic
Circle and a number of other issues.
Scientists believe the Arctic Ocean, beneath 20 feet of ice, holds
answers to questions about global warming and can provide data to help
forecast climatic changes in the Northern Hemisphere.
The 400-foot, 13,190-ton ship will pick up Canadian equipment in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, in a couple of days, then head to Greenland for a
contract ice-breaking job.
When the ship reaches Tromso, all of the scientists and technicians
will board it and two other ice breakers, the Oden from Sweden and the
Polarstern from Germany. The three ships, carrying six helicopters and
thousands of pounds of equipment, will depart Tromso on Aug. 9 for the
North Pole.
If successful, the ice breakers will become the world's first
conventionally powered ships to reach 90 degrees North. Adm. Robert
Peary was the first to reach the Pole, with dogsled teams, on April 6,
1909.
In addition to other research, scientists will deploy two automated
polar ice stations -- both developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution in cooperation with the Japan Marine Science and Technology
Center.
The stations are each equipped with 232 sensors to measure
atmosphere, ice and the sea. The stations will be set out on the ice and
the ocean for 18 months and are expected to relay data via satellite to
scientists at Woods Hole and other institutions, institution spokeswoman
Shelley Lauzon said Monday.
|
| From: [email protected] (Reuter/Stella Bugge)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.northern,clari.world.europe.western
Subject: Norwegian Explorer Lifted off North Pole
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 94 4:20:15 PDT
OSLO, Norway (Reuter) - Norwegian explorer Boerge Ousland,
the first person to reach the North Pole alone and unaided, has
been air-lifted off the icecap, his spokesman said Sunday.
"He was picked up by plane late on Saturday and the landing
went perfectly," Hans Christian Erlandsen told Reuters.
Two planes arrived at the Pole carrying a total of 14
people, including reporters and photographers and Ousland's
father bringing a bottle of champagne and a cake.
After over an hour of interviews and filming, the planes
left for the Canadian weather station Eureka, a six-hour flight
from the Pole.
Ousland said his thoughts were dominated by food during his
52-day journey. "I have been very hungry -- I'm looking most
forward to eating lasagne and having a shower," he told Reuters
on Saturday via radio from his tent at the North Pole.
Ousland, a 31-year-old North Sea diver, built up fat
reserves by drinking a glass of olive oil for breakfast every
day for a year before setting off. He has not changed clothes or
washed during the 620 mile trek which started in Siberia.
"I've been freezing a lot. My face looks like a meatball
and my hands are also frostbitten," he said, but added that the
condition was not too serious. Temperatures at the North Pole
can plunge to minus-58 F.
A string of explorers have reached the North Pole since
American Robert Peary did it in 1909, but Ousland is the first
to succeed without the aid of dog-sleds, snowmobiles or airdrops
of food.
Ousland set off around the same time as two other
adventurers with the same goal, but they gave up their quest
many weeks ago.
Briton Rupert Hadow was plucked off the ice after covering
only 29 miles of the distance from the northern tip of Canada in
23 days, and Japan's Mitsuro Oba accepted supplies and a ride on
a plane to bring him closer to the Pole.
Ousland, who also walked to the North Pole in 1990 with a
Norwegian friend Erling Kagge, said he had seen no polar bears
on this trip. Four years ago, they shot a bear in self-defense
and Ousland was carrying a magnum revolver this time in case of
emergency.
"But I have not used it," he said.
Ousland, who lived on a diet of fat-soaked cereal, dried
salmon and ham, was scheduled to arrive at the small town of
Resolute in Canada Sunday. He plans to return to Oslo on
Thursday.
"Boerge has said he won't accept any invitations unless
they include a dinner," Erlandsen joked.
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