The NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) has embarked on a critical mission to gather data from the depths of the Arctic seas as part of the Arctic Climate Observatory 2024 (ACO24).
On June 30, 2024, the NRV Alliance departed from Tromsø, Norway, to recover several deep oceanographic moorings, retrieve data recorded during the past year, perform maintenance, and redeploy the instruments to continue monitoring.
This experiment is part of a series establishing long-term monitoring of the Arctic underwater environment, which is currently undergoing transformation due to global warming. It supports NATO’s efforts in the Climate Change and Security field, as agreed upon by the Allies at the 2022 Madrid Summit. The high vertical resolution of the oceanographic and acoustic recorders positioned along very deep moorings is unique in the Arctic region. Maintaining these recorders in the coming years will provide a privileged observatory in the area.
Despite adverse weather conditions, all the moorings were successfully recovered, maintained, and redeployed between July 1 and July 9. Among other activities, a valuable CMRE mooring trapped under sea ice last year was also retrieved. Support for these activities on board is provided by the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS) and the National Research Council-Institute of Polar Sciences (CNR-ISP, Italy), who have managed the Oceanographic Mooring S1 near the Svalbard Islands since 2014. This system, anchored approximately 1000 meters deep, is equipped with oceanographic sensors that record hourly variations in the physical and biogeochemical properties of Arctic seawater. These time series are invaluable for studying climate change.
Currently, water sampling is being conducted using CTD probes, which are multiparametric sensors that measure various water mass properties.
In addition to the partners on board the NRV Alliance, data analysis ashore involves further partners from France, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The CMRE-led mission is scheduled to conclude on July 12, 2024.