Top of the World

As I sit snug in my house with a dusting of snow on the ground and trees, I read about a land where snow and ice reign — or at least reign for a little while longer.

The research vessel Polestern is part of the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAIC), the largest Arctic research expedition in history. It is studying the polar ice cap that sits at the top of the world.

The researchers recently spoke to a Washington Post reporter about what they've been encountering there. The resulting article read like one of those great polar adventure stories. At one point the scientists heard a low "grumble" and realized that the large floe to which they'd anchored their vessel was splitting apart. They once had to kayak across a newly formed channel to reach their instruments.

"We are teetering at the edge of feasibility," said the co-coordinator for the MOSAIC expedition, Matthew Shupe. In the not-so-distant future, he said, "setting up an ice camp for a whole year is not going to be possible."

But he and the other scientists can't imagine being anywhere else. Said Shupe: "It is so cool to be embedded in the middle of this new Arctic state."

(Photo: mosaic-expedition.org)