How is the seasonal variation? New cruise in October 2015

Measurements West of Prins Karls Forland in summer 2014 suggest that the amount of methane from the seabed that actually reaches the atmosphere is heavily influenced by ocean water stratification. However, it is expected that ocean stratification varies over the course of a year as temperatures and wind speeds change. To test the effect of seasonal changes in the  ocean, autumn-time measurements in the same area are ongoing (October 2015). In addition to online measurements of CH₄/CO₂/CO and flask sampling, a prototype probe is being tested in collaboration with LGGE (Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement) to be able to measure time resolved methane in the water column up to several hundred meters depth.

Summer cruise in the Barent’s Sea

The summer 2015 Barent’s Sea cruise ended mid-July. In addition to the successful collection of online data on CH4, CO2, CO and flask samples for quantification of light hydrocarbons, two samples of pure gas hydrates have been taken from drill cores south of Svalbard earlier this summer. Quantification of the light hydrocarbons in these samples will give a clearer picture of how a hydrate signal would look if hydrate gases reach atmosphere. 

 Anna Silyakova, CAGE, working with the methane samples, and transferring them to the new sampling equipment developed during MOCA for analysis at NILU.