We have been covering the Arctic Row team for about two months now, and our most recent posts have detailed how they faced an uncommonly powerful Arctic storm.
As a result of the storm, the rowers have had to pull back from the open Arctic Ocean. They did this because they got word that the storm was pushing a massive ice sheet, comprising several floes, in their direction. These floes had a very real potential of running them aground.
Today we reported that they have been waiting out the storm for six full days in an inlet called the Elson Lagoon, just off the shore of Barrow, Alaska. When to finish the trip they must row a full 1,300 miles, such a detour presents problems with food and supplies.
And now we are getting some information on just how big this unusual Arctic Storm actually was.
NASA posted the above image of the storm taken from its Aqua satellite.
Of the storm, Paul A. Newman, chief scientist for Atmospheric Sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said the following:
“It’s an uncommon event, especially because it’s occurring in the summer. Polar lows are more usual in the winter,” according to the article posted on NASA’s blog.
The storm has apparently broken off a large chunk of ice in the Arctic Ocean as well, an occurrence that may hasten this coming summer’s Arctic thaw.
For more information on the storm and what it means for the Arctic ecosystem in the coming summer, see NASA’s article.
Satellite Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/MODIS Rapid Response Team
