Professor Yngve Kristoffersen arrived in Longyearbyen, on August 22nd 2015, with the hovercraft Sabvabaa after drifting across the inaccessible Arctic Ocean during one year.
Together with Audun Tholfsen the FRAM-2014/15 ice drift station has made geological, sea ice, ocean and atmospheric measurements from the inaccessible Arctic Ocean during all four seasons.
The hovercraft and the ice drift station were deployed off the East Siberian coast by the German icebreaker Polarstern on 30. August 2014. The station has drifted 1900 kilometres across the Arctic Ocean until it ended in the Fram Strait one year later. On 18th August the ice drift station was recovered by the sealer Havsel and Sabvabaa was escorted back to Longyearbyen. This completed the Norwegian FRAM-2014/15 ice drift station hosted by the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen, Norway.
“The FRAM-2014/15 expedition has been a remarkable and unique scientific expedition collecting data from atmosphere, sea ice, ocean and seabed in an area that is essentially unexplored because it is difficult to access with icebreakers. Yngve has proven that a hovercraft is a cost-efficient and flexible platform to conduct research in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean.
“Colleagues and friends want to congratulate Yngve and Audun with successful completion of the expedition. This has been an outstanding achievement,” says Director Stein Sandven at the Nansen Center.
The Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen, Norway is the coordinator of FRAM 2014-15 ice drift station with University of Bergen and Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany as cooperative partners.
The FRAM-2014-15 ice drift expedition is supported by Lundin Petroleum Norway AS, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and Blodgett-Hall Polar Presence LLC.
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