Tools for a changing Arctic

November 25, 2025

As sea ice thins across the North Pole, researchers are trying to understand it’s fate and monitor changes as ocean temperatures warm at twice the rate as the rest of the planet.

UVic geography graduate student, Neil Brubacher, was one of 20 students chosen by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat for a scientific expedition on board the icebreaker I/B Oden. As an early career scientist, Brubacher joins the field school that includes students from 10 other countries.

“This initiative includes mapping the Arctic Ocean seafloor, with an emphasis on understanding the interconnected system in the ocean,” says Neil.

Over the summer, the Oden travelled from Svalbard to the North Pole and beyond in formation with the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St. Laurent, the two ships taking turns breaking through the summer pack ice.

“The early career scientist course includes lectures and research projects on topics spanning oceanography, biology, geology, meteorology, and geopolitics,” adds Brubacher.

From unraveling the paleo-history of Arctic sea ice through sediment cores taken 4 kilometers below the sea surface, to mapping the intrusion of warm Atlantic waters into the Arctic and predicting the implications for sea ice melt.

The researchers will also be evaluating and improving weather forecast models in an environment with weak sunlight and uniquely pure air, a shared goal of the nine research “work packages” on board is to collect rare and valuable observations of a seldom visited but globally important region of Earth.

“My research in particular is focused on measuring physical sea ice and snow properties that are difficult to estimate remotely, like ice thickness and snow depth,” says Brubacher.

“When the persistent fog lifts and the winds are agreeable, we hop from the ship to a nearby ice floe via helicopter to measure various ice and snow properties, such as temperature, salinity, thickness, and density, and collect ice, seawater, and snow samples for biological and chemical analyses back in the ship’s lab.”

Brubacher will compare ice thickness patterns and snow properties in the hope to use the measurements to improve remote sensing estimates, in an effort to understand, monitor, forecast, and protect a rapidly changing Arctic system.