Writing this after a few days. Last couple of days had been hectic but otherwise very productive. I managed to collect enough drifting ice samples from the fjord, so hoping some algae in them. Having said that one of my colleagues reported that the phytoplankton abundance in the fjord is extremely low, the spring bloom here commences not until late April. If I am lucky, perhaps might be able to get a snapshot in the samples. The compulsory rifle training went well too. This means now I am licensed to carry a gun for protection from polar bear whilst in the field. For the last few days I have been filtering as much water as possible. It would be interesting to analyze once back in India. Today had the opportunity to experience real Arctic weather, the day had been windy and the wind chill was unbelievable, it was making everybody feel as if -30C. Also today went to one of the bays to collect ice core samples. I have attached a movie file so you can understand how the weather was like. More later....

25th March, 2010
Today the weather has been mostly gloomy and still is. We undertook rifle training course today and tomorrow we head off to the shooting range. You will wonder why? Well simple reason..... polar bear. Plenty of them around and their density is one of the highest in and around Svalbard. So its a precautionary measure. Lets talk a bit more about the science now. I will be sampling in the Kongsfjorden, a fjord 100 metres away from our research station. Plan is to filter as much as water mostly from the surface and subsurface region and filter water from melted ice. Then I bring those filtered samples back in India and using genomic techniques we will understand how tiny microscopic organisms are adapting to this cold climate. The water sampling is scheduled in a week's time because the fjord is almost icy. One of the coolest thing here is we have an international arctic scientific research station run by Kings Bay, the agency which is in charge of Ny Alesund. From breakfast to dinner we are taking there, also we have a fully functional gym, library and common lounge...So you can never feel you are away whilst being at 79 degrees N- here the folks say it is the northernmost community..
More to follow later..

An update from Himadri, the Indian Base Camp in Ny Alesund
Yes! Finally I am here. Myself along with my other team members left from Oslo at 10:00 am and reached Ny Alesund by evening time, precisely 5:00 pm. The flight from Oslo stopped in Tromso enroute to Longyearbyen. We were greeted with a major snow storm in Tromso and had to wait for a while. From there we flew to Longyearbyen. Throughout the journey the views have been magnificent. No words to describe! As you can see from the picture we were frequented with the snow cap mountains, frozen coastal waters with evidence of phytoplankton bloom at times (yes even in this cold weather the phytos are blooming!) as well as frozen fjords. After reaching Longyearbyen we had to change our flight and took a special aircraft that flies the scientists to Ny Alesund. The temperature yesterday hovered around -25 to -30C. Today it is better. Scientists from 10 countries have their bases including India with the Norwegian base the biggest amongs all. Multidisciplinary research activities ranging from geotectic measurements to marine biology is being conducted here. I will write more on the science component later. The facilities in the Indian base 'Himadri' is at its best. I will update with more photos of Ny Alesund, our base camp and others soon. So keep an eye on the blog!

We reached Oslo in the late afternoon of 21st March. There has been heavy snowfall overnight, the temperature perhaps dipped to -8C over the night. We are staying in Radisson and today we are heading for Longyearbyen. Longyearbyen is located on the island Spitsbergen in Svalbard and used to be the epicentre of Arctic coal mining. The site was established by John Munroe Longyear, the owner of Arctic Coal company. The current temperature in Longyearbyen is -22C and it is going to remain like this for the rest of the day. After we reach Longyearbyen by the late afternoon of day we will take another connecting flight and fly straight to Ny Alesund. Ny Alesund is the place where India's Arctic Research Station 'Himadri' is located. So more from Ny Alesund to follow.

Day 2
We started our journey today at 3:00 am (21st March) from Mumbai by Lufthansa and reached Frankfurt right on time. As I write this blog myself along with the team members are waiting to catch the flight for Oslo. We will halt overnight in Oslo and tomorrow (22nd March) we will continue with our journey to Ny Alesund. The temp in Ny Alesund is -14C, however the projected temperature for 22nd will be -17C. I will update the blog from Oslo with some pics hopefully. Ciao!

" The discovery of the North Pole is one of those realities which could not be avoided'. It is the wages which human perseverance pays itself when it thinks that something is taking too long."- quote by Karl Kraus, an Austrian journalist, playwright and poet (1874-1936)

Yes!!! The wait is over, after a year long preparation I am off to the Arctic Circle in less than 24 hours time. This is definitely going to be the most exciting scientific expedition I have ever undertaken and I am very much looking forward to it. I am flying to Goa tomorrow to meet up with the other members of the Indian Arctic Expedition Team followed by a briefing before we head off to Oslo, Norway. The final destination will be Ny Alesund near Svalbard, one of the entry points to Arctic.

I will update this blog whenever I can along with photos. Thank you everybody for taking the time out and visiting this blog!

Cheerio!