From February 25 to March 16, the scientists stationed at Andøya will fly over the Barents Sea in search of bad weather. The results will be used to prepare weather models so that meteorologists will be able to provide more precise forecasts.

"The bad weather in the north is not necessarily worse than the bad weather in southern Norway, but it is far more difficult to forecast. Arctic fronts and polar low pressure systems are so small that they are not always captured by models and satellite pictures. In addition, we have a very fragmented observation network in the northern regions," explains Kristjansson, who heads the research project Thorpex-IPY.

More accidents?
Extreme weather in the north can have significant consequences for those in the fishing industry. In 1974, 36 fishers were killed when the fishing vessel Gaul disappeared in a storm off of Nordkapp. And there are many indications that the Mehamn accident in 1982 was caused by the strong winds that result from cold air meeting high mountains.

The oil and gas platforms off the coast of Finnmark may become vulnerable to extreme weather as the activity on the continental shelf increases. And in a warmer climate, the shipping traffic from Asia through the Northwest Passage will increase. These ships could end up sailing through seas where polar extreme weather frequently rages.

Better models
Observations from the expeditions at Andøya will be used by scientists participating in the project to fine-tune existing forecasting models. At the same time, data from some of the instruments will be used to forecast weather while the mission is being carried out. The scientists hope this will provide better forecasts to the fishers who are taking part in this year's cod harvest.
"We are very excited about what these readings will tell us," says Jon Egill Kristjansson.
"We will fly into various weather phenomena and gather high-quality data. This will give us a lot of information about extreme weather in the Arctic, and we can discover connections we were unaware of and thus make better weather models."

In 2007, Kristjansson was part of an air expedition off the coast of Greenland.
"We flew through a lot of bad weather, including right over a polar low pressure system. It was incredibly beautiful to see the whirlwind that makes up the center of the storm from above. One time we flew so low over the sea that I got the feeling that the plane licked the tops of the waves. Then we flew through heavy turbulence to measure how much heat and moisture the ocean releases into the air. The body of the plane shook violently as we flew only a few meters over the ocean. It was a very intense experience," remembers Kristjansson.

Many different types of bad weather
The scientists will study three phenomena that create extreme weather along the Norwegian coast: Arctic fronts, polar low pressure systems, and strong winds caused by high mountains and cold air. The winter months are peak season for this kind of bad weather, and the scientists have planned the mission for February and March because of the light conditions.

"It makes all the operations much easier to carry out, including being able to see a lot of interesting things out of the airplane window. We can take a lot of instructional photographs of interesting phenomena, and we can use satellite pictures with visible light, and not just infrared pictures," explains Kristjansson.
An Arctic front is the wall that is created when milder air meets ice-cold air cooled over the polar ice in the north. This front can extend up to 500 kilometers, and can result in extreme winds up to hurricane strength and heavy precipitation.

Polar low pressure systems are created when cold air from the ice-covered areas in the north move south and meet warm oceans. This pumps enormous amounts of heat and moisture from the sea into the atmosphere. The Norwegian coast is particularly vulnerable because it is so close to the edge of the polar ice, at the same time that the Gulf Stream carries warm seawater northward along our coast.

The DLR Falcon
The research plane DLR Falcon is owned by Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Luft- und Raumfahrt, the German aerospace center. The plane, originally produced for the private market, is extremely robust and constructed to be able to fly through hurricanes just as easily as 30 meters behind the jet motor of a passenger plane.

The plane can carry 1500 kilos of instruments, including the weight of the three people there are room for on board. During the three weeks that the plane will be stationed on Andøya, it will be in the air a total of 50 hours spread out over 15 expeditions. GHG emissions caused by the flights are compensated through purchase of UN-approved carbon offsets from the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT).

The area that will be studied ranges from Nordland to Svalbard in the north, to the Russian border in the east, and to Iceland in the west.

On board the plane are instruments that can measure temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind strength, and turbulence. These readings will be taken at least once per second to capture all the variations. The plane is also equipped with two laser instruments called Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging). They function almost like an echo sounder, except that they use laser, not sound, to carry out the measurements. One Lidar will measure wind speed, another will measure humidity.

The plane will also release a total of 150 sondes that measure temperature, humidity, air pressure, and wind strength.

Drones
In addition to the German plane, two drones will examine the atmosphere in Framstredet west of Svalbard. The unmanned planes are rented from the research institute Norut in Tromsø and the University of Braunschweig in Germany. They weigh only 12 kilos, and they travel about 100 kilometers an hour, with a range of about 300 kilometers. They are equipped with instruments to measure temperature, humidity, air pressure, and ocean-surface temperature.

The coast guard is participating
The coast guards from both Svalbard and Senja have Thorpex scientists on board during the project. The coast guard vessels will release radio sondes into the atmosphere to measure temperature, humidity, air pressure, and wind strength.

In addition, Russian scientists will take readings of the atmosphere over Novaja Semlja, Murmansk and Franz Josef Land using balloons, while Norwegian weather observers will release balloons from Bjørnøya, and German scientists will release balloons from Ny Ålesund.

About the scientists
About 25 scientists will live and work on the Andøya Rocket Range from February 25 to March 16. The plane has room for one scientist in addition to a pilot and technician from the German aerospace center.
"It takes a lot of planning to find out where we will fly. Much of the time will be spent planning the next day's flight and directing the plane toward areas with bad weather while it is in the air," says Kristjansson.