Scientist in arctic longer than expected

By DIANE HELDT
Staff Writer

An Ames Laboratory scientist who has spent six weeks aboard a polar icebreaker in the arctic may not be returning next week as scheduled because the helicopter landing pad in the ice near the ship is melting.

Jim Liljegren, an Ames Lab atmospheric researcher, left on May 11 for his research mission on the Des Groseilliers, a Canadian icebreaker that was intentionally frozen into the ice in October as part of a 13-month mission to study the arctic's role in global climate change. Liljegren is studying polar clouds and global warming during his stay.

He was expected to return on June 29, but the rotation of scientists on the ship may not take place by then because the landing pad around the ship is melting, said Lucia Liljegren, an ISU assistant professor of aerospace engineering and Jim Liljegren's wife. Not only is the ice runway melting, but also the foggy weather is preventing inspection of the runway to see if a helicopter could land on it, Lucia Liljegren said.

"If the helicopter can't land then there will be no crew rotation until it can, and he might be stuck there for a while," she said. "I have no clue when he's coming home."

But the warm weather that is melting the ice around the ship -- it actually is floating by itself again and is no longer ice-locked for the first time in eight months, forcing the researchers to tie it to the ice floe -- is not preventing Liljegren from doing his research, his wife said. It is solstice in the arctic, which means the sun is up 24-hours a day.

"He is getting that done even if it is a chore sometimes," she said. "Sometimes when he walks on the ice he sinks up to his knees in slush."

Jim and Lucia Liljegren have been communicating by e-mail several times a week, and the ABC News website is posting Jim Liljegren's e-mails and diary entries, Lucia Liljegren said. He also is taking photos that are being used on the ABC site, and he is answering questions from the site's readers, she said.

"We joked that they wouldn't use any of the e-mails unless it was related to a polar bear and that's the first entry they used -- when there was a polar bear warning," Lucia Liljegren said. "But now they're posting what he's eating for breakfast every morning."

Liljegren's e-mails tell of his daily routines and schedules, the environment around the ship, including any polar bear and seal sightings, and the things the crew does to entertain themselves -- such as throwing a beach party to "think warm."

Information about the expedition and Liljegren's updates can be seen at http://www.abcnews.com/sections/science/DailyNews/exped_arctic980622_log9.html

Publication date: June 24, 1998

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Last revision: 6/25/98 sd

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