Possible Antarctic icebreaking action today

RRS James Clark Ross is on route to Rothera, the largest British Antarctic Survey research Station. In the next few hours to get to the base she will have to pass what looks like a continuous sea ice band about 15 km wide, before she enters some looser pack. To get their she will have to do some icebreaking. The band of ice has been stationary for over a week.

If you want to follow the action the ship has a webcam, or you can check the Radio Office Mike Gloistein's update page. The web cam is as I write this but I'm sure it will be switched on soon.

The MODIS satellite image off Adelaide Island 25 Nov 2016, with the location of the RRS James Clark Ross 0000 28 November 2016.
The MODIS satellite image off Adelaide Island 25 Nov 2016, with the location of the RRS James Clark Ross 0000 28 November 2016.

The satellite image is from 25 November 2016, but the sea ice doesn't look like it has changed significantly since then. I chose that date simply because it is relatively cloud free.

The ship has about 130 km to run so could dock later today - but it could be tomorrow given the sea ice.  The path I have shown in red looks quite a long way south of the Island - but close in it gets quite shallow. If your interested in your polar history the ship RRS John Biscoe was actually abandoned in this region for a while before being rescued by the German ship Polarstern.

This is as The Antarctic Report points out, quite early for the ship to reach the base.

The track of the ship is online along with the weather conditions it is experiencing. At at about 0°C it is currently warmer than a lot of the UK.

Dr Helen Jones is the doctor on the James Clark Ross and she is writing a blog Baby it's cold down here.

--UPDATE 1050z --

You can see James Clark Ross is now in the ice and heading for the band of relatively open water at the southern tip of Adelaide Island.

This is an image from the webcam.

I wrote about what a water sky is a while ago.

--UPDATE 0650z 29 November --

It was too early and the RRS James Clark Ross didn't make Rothera.

To quote the radio officer Mike Gloistein:

The sea-ice around the bottom of Adelaide Island has been heavy and whilst (for those of you who look at the satellite pictures) there are some leads and areas of open water,  they are close to land and if we took that route (which also includes shallow water and rocks) and the weather then pushed the ice inland,  the ship could easily become stuck between a rock and a hard place.

And get stuck just like the John Biscoe...