Uncharted areas of North Greenland Stockholm University
Thank you to Professor Martin Jakobsson at Stockholm University for sharing incredible photos from their expedition to the remaining uncharted areas of North Greenland, exploring Victoria Fjord with IB Oden where C.H. Ostenfeld Glacier drains, and describing how QPS software fits into their workflow.
In August 2024, the icebreaker Oden set off on its 3rd expedition to the remote waters of northern Greenland, the destination was Victoria Fjord; a previously unvisited and unmapped area where the large C.H. Ostenfeld Glacier flows into the sea. One of the key goals of the 2024 expedition was to investigate why the Ostenfeld ice tongue disintegrated. Reaching Victoria Fjord was not easy as the surrounding Lincoln Sea has some of the harshest sea-ice conditions in the Arctic, impassable for most ships. Even the fjord itself had never been mapped.
IB Oden has experience operating in such extreme environments. Over the years, we have developed an effective approach for navigating and conducting science in completely uncharted waters. Our method involves nighttime geophysical mapping, in this case the most important instrument is the multibeam echosounder. We advance into unknown areas carefully, always keeping one side of our sonar swath over the freshly mapped seafloor. This allows us to sail safely and ensure 100% seafloor coverage. By morning, we have fresh, high-resolution maps that help us plan the day’s sampling activities, whether geological, geochemical, biological, or oceanographic.
Crucial to this workflow is the multibeam processing. We use Qimera on board for this task. It allows us to process incoming bathymetric data quickly and efficiently. The software is not only powerful but also user-friendly, which is essential for a team working around the clock. Combining seafloor mapping with real-time analysis is especially important when selecting sites to retrieve sediment cores. These cores serve as history books, revealing the development of the glacier and climate conditions in the fjord over thousands of years.
The 2024 GEOEO expedition was a major success. We reached Victoria Fjord and managed to map its outermost section. The data we gathered is already shedding light on the evolution of one of Greenland’s most remote glaciers and it’s all thanks to the combined efforts of involved scientists, the icebreaker crew, the icebreaker Oden, and the Swedish Polar Secretariat that organized the expedition logistically.
