A local scientist beat the heat this summer by cruising on a ship frozen in arctic ice.

Jim Liljegren, atmospheric researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, recently returned from eight weeks of atmospheric research aboard the Des Groseilliers. The ship, a Canadian icebreaker that was intentionally frozen into arctic ice north of Alaska, drifts in the ice following the ice-ocean circulation pattern of the region.

Liljegren’s research involved the collection of atmospheric energy loss at the North Pole. Liljegren explained that atmospheric energy enters the atmosphere at the tropics and is lost through the Earth’s poles.

“The poles are what governs that rate of energy transfer,” Liljegren said.

Measuring the energy transfer rate in these regions enhances the accuracy of global climate models.

“Models that want to predict the global climate have to be able to predict that loss correctly,” Liljegren said.

Liljegren works for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) group of the Department of Energy. ARM also has bases to measure the build-up of energy in the tropics.

The Des Groseilliers was frozen into the ice last fall to provide a research base for various fields of study.

“From the aspect of productivity, as well as the aspect of maintainability, having the ship there is a tremendous advantage,” Liljegren said.

An 18-member Canadian coast guard crew ran the ship for the scientists. Meals, polar bear watch and general housekeeping were all taken care of by the crew, Liljegren said.

“We [researchers] could spend all of our time doing what it was we came there to do,” he said.

Liljegren said working in the arctic was not without its difficulties. He said with 24 hours of sunlight, it was very easy to work 20-22 hours without noticing how much time had passed.

“Time just seems to continuously flow,” Liljegren said.

To combat this problem, the ship kept a regimented schedule of meals and work. Liljegren said this provided a substitution for normal day/night reference points, such as darkness and the evening news.

Polar bears were also a potential threat. Liljegren said the ship and its inhabitants were very popular with the bears for a period of about two weeks.

He said he took a shotgun safety course to help reduce the risk of a polar bear attack. On overcast days, researchers took a gun with them when they left the ship, but on clear days they carried only a radio. Liljegren said no one had a dangerous encounter with a polar bear during his stay.

Liljegren’s return was delayed two weeks due to the difficulty of landing a plane on the ice so late in the summer season. Liljegren said he eventually was transported on another ice breaker.