The Navy returns to the Arctic polar circle

(To Marina Militare)
15/01/18

Wednesday 17 January the multi-purpose research ship Alliance it will depart from the port of La Spezia for a scientific mission with NATO's Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), between the seas of Iceland and Greenland, beyond the Arctic Circle. To greet the crew and the researchers on board, the commander in chief of the naval team, team admiral Donato Marzano and the director of CMRE, doctor Catherine Warner.

After 90 years from the historic mission of Commander Nobile and following the recent expedition carried out in the summer of 2017 called "High North", the Navy will return to the North Pole, for the first time in the Arctic winter, to support research activities in support from the international organization Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as part of the Iceland-Greenland Seas Project (IGP) multidisciplinary program. The main purpose of the expedition is the study of the air / water interaction and the relative ventilation that is created in the Arctic Sea, with the aim of achieving a better understanding of the circulation of sea currents. The scientific activity will be characterized by two navigation periods of about twenty days each, and will consist in carrying out, in the strait that separates Iceland from the east coast of Greenland, expeditious and in-depth surveys of the parameters of electrical conductivity, temperature, depth, geochemical analysis and speed of sound in water, bathymetric surveys, bathymetry measurement and meteorological measurements (marine and air), carrying out the correlation and statistical collection between the acquired data.

Ship Alliance, under the command of frigate captain Daniele Cantù, has a crew of 47 soldiers and embarks, for the occasion, a research group made up of 22 scientists from various international organizations. In charge of the scientific mission is Dr. Robert Pickart, scientist of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), assisted by the head of the Navy mission, the vessel captain Massimiliano Nannini. Two scientific teams will alternate during the mission: the change will take place during the operational stops in the Icelandic ports of Reykjavik and Isafjordur, respectively in the first and last ten days of February.

The ship will end its mission with the return to Italy, scheduled for the first ten days of April 2018.