by Matthew Shupe, CIRES/NOAA scientist and co-coordinator of MOSAiC

Captain Wunderlich asked if he could join me on the ice today… perhaps to get some fresh air. So he joined Jackson Osborn and me on our daily walk-about around to our different stations. I decided to show him some of the other great areas on our floe as well. For me, the central part of the Fortress, now the desert scene, is the greatest place to go. Our walk revealed this fantastic network of ponds and drainage channels, winding through carved surfaces. At one place we tracked a winding channel for probably 300 meters, curving back and forth, linking ponds. It looked like this network eventually made its way to the floe’s edge, all connected. It is really quite like a river network. There was also a balanced piece of ice in the middle of a pond. Round, perhaps 2-3m across, it has melted out underneath almost entirely. Just a little flying saucer sitting there hovering above the melt pond. So many fascinating structures.

Our journey ventured to the far side of the floe, along the coast for a bit, and then along a ridge to a high view point looking back towards Met City, many other science installations, and onto the ship in the background. People all over doing science. From that point we journeyed through an area that I had not yet explored, back along the rugged area beyond what has become known as Mystery Pond and over towards Met City. Around Met City we were able to check out the different groups of people and hear about their science….. the tower, the radiation suite, the ocean profiles, the drone people, gas flux samplers….. so much great science and what a nice walk through the floe.