Chinare5 - The Research

Data Map

The Research

The scientists and staff on board the Xuelong, the Snow Dragon, will work in several fields of research.

The major field work area is large. Research will for example be conducted in the Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, Chukchi Plateau, Canada Basin and the High sea of Norwegian Sea.

Several research points will be re-visited, from the other four CHINARE (Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition) expeditions. Most of them are in the Bering Sea, the Chukchi area and the Canada basin.

A new field of research will be explored for the first time by CHINARE, the HIgh Sea of the Norwegian sea. China has a research station in Ny Alesund, Svalbard, and the area surroundings are therefore relevant to Chinese Arctic research.

The main subjects of research in the expedition are:
- Physical Oceanography and Sea Ice
- Marine meteorology

- Marine Geology

- Marine Chemistry and Atmospheric Chemistry

- Marine biology and ecolosystem research

The scientific research of the expedition has a few key elements:

- Survey of the marine environment and sea-ice-air system

- Take geologic record of rapid changes in the marine environment

- Study the impact of Arctic changes on Chinese climate

- Research on the carbon flux, nutrients and biogeochemical cycle in the Arctic

- Ecosystem status investigation and its response to global change

Physical Oceanography and Sea Ice
PRIC conducts research related to oceanography and sea ice and have so for many years, both in the Arctic and the Antarctic. Arctic research includes water masses, fronts and circulation and the interaction between the water mass, circulation and ice shelf. PRIC has also studied the exchange with its surrounding oceans, the variability of the Arctic sea ice in relation to climate change and monitoring of ocean environment in the bi-polar oceans. Weather data will also be collected.

- Click here for data sets about Oceanography by PRIC and CAA

       - Click here to download datasets about environmental sciences from PRIC and CAA.
       - Click here to download datasets about geophysics from PRIC and CAA
       - Click here to read articles about meteorology from the Chinese Journal of Polar Science

Marine Geology
The geology of the Arctic has been a research subject for some time, both in the CHINARE expeditions and at the Arctic Yellow River station in Svalbard. They are based on long-term continuous field observations, satellite remote sensing to study polar ice caps, ice shelves, sea ice, oceans and the atmosphere of both the key physical and chemical processes and their response to global change. The research includes snow and ice mass balance and sea level change research, ice - snow - gas modern physical and chemical processes, ice core high-resolution climate records research, sea ice changes and the study of physical processes.

       - Click here to download data sets about geology from PRIC and CAA
       - Click here to read articles about geology from the Chinese Journal of Polar Science

Marine Chemistry and Atmospheric Chemistry
The major objective of the Upper Atmosphere Physics Division (UAP) is to understand the high-latitude space weather. Interactions between the solar wind and the magnetosphere, and the coupling between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere have most of their manifestations in the high-latitude atmosphere. The research targets are energy transfer from the solar wind to the magnetosphere, energy storage in the magnetosphere, and its release in the high-latitude ionosphere, the thermosphere, and the neutral atmosphere.

- Click here to download data sets about Atmospheric chemistry from PRIC and CAA
- Click here to read more about Atmospheric chemistry by PRIC
- Click here to read articles about chemistry from the Chinese Journal of Polar Science

Marine biology and eco-system
As in the seas of lower latitude, the microbial loop is crucial in the polar marine plankton ecosystem. The interest is mainly in the protozoa and its role in the carbon transfer in the plankton community. Investigations have been carried out in both Arctic and Antarctic seas (Bering Sea, Canadian Basin, Greenland Sea, Prydz Bay etc.).

- Click here to read more about marine biological science by PRIC
- Click here to download data sets about biology from PRIC and CAA