The exceptional Norwegian FRAM 2014-15 sea ice drift station started in the Arctic Ocean about 280 kilometres from the North Pole in the direction of the Siberian coast on 30th August 2014. The hovercraft Sabvabaa with professor Yngve Kristoffersen and Audun Tholfsen from the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen, Norway was deployed on the Arctic sea ice by the German icebreaker Polarstern. An ice camp was built up on a 1,1 meter tick and 2 square kilometres large ice floe. For near one year the two scientists will drift through the central Arctic Ocean, along and crossing the Lomonosov Ridge, southward towards the Fram Strait, between Greenland and Svalbard. During the drift with the sea ice unique oceanographic, atmospheric and geologic scientific measurements and observations have been made in pristine parts of the Arctic Ocean. FRAM2014-15 is the first Norwegian ice drift in the Arctic Ocean since Fridtjof Nansen´s drift with the vessel Fram 118 years ago. More about the FRAM 2014-15.

The Nansen Center is the coordinator of FRAM 2014-15 and let you follow this unique sea ice drift expedition through the inaccessible Arctic Ocean during all four seasons for one year. The FRAM-2014-15 expedition is supported from Lundin Norway AS, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and Blodgett-Hall Polar Presence LLC. The scientific program is carried out in cooperation with Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Germany, University of Bergen, Bjerknes Center for Climate Research and Norwegian Meteorological Institute.