And the sun goes up over the Barents Sea. Photo: Michael Tjernström/MISU/Stockholm University.

Today I had the chance to go on a research flight north to the sea ice south and east of Svalbard and it was a successful flight. The flight went north over the western part of the Barents Sea up to around the southern tip of Svalbard.

There were several parts: Flight legs at 5 km using remote sensing and drop sondes to study the air below the aircraft, long flight legs above and below clouds, so-called porpoise flights up and down several times between the lowest heights and through clouds, and one very long flight leg at the lowest height, around 150 m, from the ice and south out over open water.

The pilots of the NCAR C-130 Hercuces aircraft keeps a close eye on the sea ice during a turn south of Svalbard. Photo: Michael Tjernström/MISU/Stockholm University.

Further back in the aircraft scientists are at work on their instruments. Photo: Michael Tjernström/MISU/Stockholm University.

At the moment we are forced to adapt take-off and landing times to the large NATO exercise, so in order to get a seven hour flight we had to start at dawn and could see the sun come up under our right wing.

Scattered clouds over the sea ice southeast of Svalbard. Photo: Michael Tjernström/MISU/Stockholm University.