High North 19 marine geophysics campaign completed

(To Marina Militare)
13/11/19

With the entry into the port of Bergen, the multi-purpose research vessel Alliance he finished his fourth mission at the North Pole, completing the High North 19, Marine Geophysics Campaign of the Navy's Arctic Research Program in the Arctic.

The High North 19 campaign, coordinated by the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy, saw the development of a joint, synergistic and multidisciplinary research, aimed at the continuity over time and space of observations of the marine environment off the coast of the Svalbard Islands. Present on board the ship Alliance staff and researchers of the Hydrographic Institute and of the main national and international bodies such as CNR, ENEA, ERI, INGV, OGS and JRC-EU and NATO STO-CMRE.

The campaign at sea, at this time of year, presented a challenge not only for the particular activities to be carried out, but above all for the environmental characteristics. In fact the rigid polar conditions found in this period, with temperatures below zero and twenty up to 65 nodes, have constantly accompanied the exploration and monitoring activity of High North 19.

The campaign was concentrated in a week of very intense activity off the Svalbard Islands in the Norwegian Sea, with sampling of environmental data in over 50 stations for bio-optical, acoustic, marine pollution, macro, micro-nano plastics, biogeophysics of the water column and the mapping of the seabed along a path of 800 nautical miles in the approximately 2300 nautical miles traveled in total after the departure from Tromsø.

Particular attention was paid to the significance in the temporal and spatial continuity of the data recording of the marine environment of the water column and the seabed, with the recovery, maintenance and repositioning of instruments fixed to anchors S1 and ID2 (mooring S1 and ID2). These moorings are two observation points of the Svalbard International Observation System (SIOS - Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observation System) which since 2014 have been collecting data thanks to the commitment of CNR, OGS and, since 2017, the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy. During navigation, marine meteorological data (wind, wave motion, current, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, air temperature and humidity) were also acquired for the refinement of meteorological forecast models and the development of an instrument that supports polar navigation with the ARNACOSKY project in environmental sustainability and knowledge of the One Ocean.  

Ship Alliance, under the command of frigate captain Andrea Crucitti, is a multipurpose research ship. It has a crew of 48 soldiers and embarks, for the occasion, a research group made up of 19 scientists from the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy, from NATO CMRE and from various national and international organizations. Scientific coordinator is Professor Roberta Ivaldi of the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy.