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Arctic survey Now that his proposal to take part in MOSAiC has received NERC backing, Dr Hwang is beginning to make preparations. “Setting out from a departure point in northern Europe or Russia, we will probably join the Polarstern in July 2020 and remain on board for two months, having been “ferried” to the research vessel by an icebreaker, although helicopter travel might also be necessary. We will all have polar bear protection and specialist training.” He will take with him some speciallydesigned and constructed buoys equipped with GPS devices that are capable of tracking the movement of ice with extreme precision. The goal of Dr Hwang and his coinvestigator Dr Jinchang Ren, of the University of Strathclyde, is to investigate what is known as the marginal ice zone and the patterns which increasingly see winter ice deforming and then breaking up in the spring and melting in the summer. It is believed that greater understanding of these seasonal ice floes can lead to better models for climate prediction. “We have satellite observation that can see what is happening alongside the ship. But if we want to measure how the individual ice is breaking up and melting, satellite cannot resolve that. In simple terms, we have to be there to go and measure it.”
Dr Phil Hwang
Spotlight Dr Byongjun (Phil) Hwang SENIOR LECTURER IN BIOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCES, SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCES Dr Hwang is a geophysicist and remote sensing specialist researching the dynamics and thermodynamics of snow and sea-ice in the Arctic. Since completing his PhD from the University of Manitoba, Canada in 2008, his Arctic research has attracted research grants from UK NERC & Royal Society, EU and the US Office of Naval Research.
For more information on the research in this article email: B.Hwang@hud.ac.uk
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