Sy, A. et al. (2002): Upper Ocean Climate Ship-of-Opportunlty Programme of BSH - A Status Report 
13 
2.3 Further activities 
During August 1990, the Soviet nuclear icebreaker ’’Rossiya” (UPIG) carried a party of tourists 
from Murmansk to the North Pole, cutting across the Eurasian Basin at longitudes 60°E and 
95°E. As the vessel was not fully booked, we took the opportunity to join them and carry out 
some research in co-operation with Hamburg University, Germany. The Arctic region is virtually 
inaccessible to normal ocean-going vessels and, therefore, available ocean data is extremely 
sparse. On the other hand, it is a region vulnerable to climatic changes. Closely spaced 
temperature profile measurements in the upper 500 m of the water column were made using 
T-7 (depth range up to 800 m) and T-5 (depth range up to 2000 m) XBTs dropped in leads or 
small polynyas. Our assumption that XBT drops in ice-covered areas would be challenging was 
confirmed, and only half of the 170 probes launched in the ice regime reached a depth of more 
than 350 m. Nevertheless, the results obtained were well worth the effort. The data were 
reported by Sy and Ulrich (1994), and the scientific results were published by Quadfasel et al. 
(1991,1993). 
Additional XBT measurements have been carried out occasionally by different German and 
Russian research vessels in order to improve the data density of lines AX-1, AX-2 and AX-3. 
An overview of all vessels which participated in the BSH SOOP from 1988 until 2002 is given in 
Table 2 below. 
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Total 
CMS Koeln Express /AX-03 
470 
612 
778 
553 
546 
491 
384 
440 
321 
415 
260 
307 
150 
5727 
CMS Monte Rosa/AX-11 
153 
293 
343 
427 
350 
364 
259 
2189 
RV Walther Herwig /AX-01 
26 
55 
54 
83 
60 
112 
62 
56 
30 
538 
RV Gauss/AX-03 
128 
308 
262 
266 
245 
1209 
RV Meteor/AX-1/2/3 
259 
275 
534 
CMS Bonn Express /AX-03 
179 
737 
265 
1181 
RV Prof. Multanovsky/AX-03 
122 
161 
283 
RV Valdivia /AX-01 
110 
110 
NS Rossiya /Arctic 
156 
156 
CMS Cap Finisterre/AX-11 
47 
384 
447 
395 
309 
395 
510 
2487 
RV Prof. Shtokman /AX-03 
75 
75 
SS Dagmar Aaen / Ice Sail 
53 
53 
Total 
470 
638 
1987 
846 
1176 
1314 
1076 
864 
1047 
1211 
1025 
732 
904 1132 
1027 
14549 
1400 
00 
o 
o 
T" 
CM 
CO 
in 
CD 
I**. 
00 
CD 
O 
Y— ( 
N 
00 
00 
CD 
O) 
CD 
CD 
CD 
CD 
CD 
CD 
CD 
CD 
O 
O ( 
D 
o 
CD 
CD 
O) 
Gì 
<D 
CD 
CD 
CD 
CD 
CD 
CD 
o 
o « 
Z> 
T" 
1“ 
Y— 
T— 
r— 
Y— 
Y— 
Y— 
l— 
Y— 
T - 
r— 
CM 
CM ( 
CM 
□ SS Dagmar Aaen / Ice Sail 
□ RV Prof. Shtokman /AX-03 
□ CMS Cap Finisterre /AX-11 
□ NS Rossiya /Arctic 
□ RV Valdivia /AX-01 
■ RV Prof. Multanovsky /AX-03 
El CMS Bonn Express /AX-03 
□ RV Meteor /AX-1/2/3 
□ RV Gauss /AX-03 
□ RV Walther Herw ig /AX-01 
□ CMS Monte Rosa /AX-11 
□ CMS Koeln Express/AX-03 
Table 2: Vessels participated in BSH’s SOOP and number of XBT profiles acquired from 1988 to 2002.