Chasing the Arctic Melt — documentary about expedition ARTofMELT, Arctic Ocean, 2023

Stella Papadopoulou, Gunnar Zetterberg

This 22-minute documentary follows the ARTofMELT (Atmospheric Rivers and the Onset of Arctic Melt) expedition aboard the Swedish research icebreaker Oden, which departed Svalbard around midnight on 8 May 2023 and returned on 14 June 2023.

The expedition brought together an international team of scientists investigating the processes that trigger the annual melting of Arctic sea ice, with a particular focus on the role of so-called “atmospheric rivers”, which are long, narrow bands of moisture transport in the atmosphere that can carry heat and humidity into the Arctic and potentially accelerate melt onset.

The film features expedition scientists Michael Tjernström, Paul Zieger, Julia Kojoj (née Asplund), and Sonja Murto, who share their experiences aboard Oden — from the scientific questions driving the expedition, including how Arctic melt processes are reshaping the climate system, to the challenges and uncertainty of collecting data in such an extreme environment. The researchers also reflect on the need to constantly adapt and manage expectations in the unpredictable Arctic, while offering a glimpse into the realities of daily life onboard and the human side of polar research.

MarineExpeditionArcticArctic OceanARTofMELT 2023 expeditionIcebreaker Oden

Name

Version

Citation

References

Tjernström M, Zieger P, et al. (2025) ARTofMELT 2023 - Expedition report. Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, ISBN 978-91-519-5134-8. https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:polar:diva-9183

Data description

• Number of files: 1
• Total data size: 746 MB
• File format: video/mp4 (mp4)

Comments

The documentary

The film was produced and directed by Stella Papadopoulou (Department of Environmental Science) and Gunnar Zetterberg (Media Production at Stockholm University). Papadopoulou joined the expedition both as part of the aerosol research team and as a science communicator and filmmaker, documenting the scientific work and daily life onboard. Zetterberg contributed additional photography and edited the film. The documentary was screened at the EGU General Assembly in Vienna in 2024 and later won the award for Best Science Film at the Húsavík Explorers Festival in Iceland the same year.

The expedition

The documentary is about the ARTofMELT 2023 expedition on board the Swedish icebreaker Oden, which was organized by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat from 8 May through 14 June, 2023.

Project

This work is part of the ARTofMELT (Atmospheric rivers and the onset of Arctic melt) project. The ARTofMELT expedition was supported and organised by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat (SPRS) on the Swedish research icebreaker Oden in spring 2023 under the SWEDARCTIC program. Funding for the documentary was also provided by the Department of Environmental Science (ACES), the Carl Tryggers Foundation (CTS 22:2148) and the Ivar Bendixsons scholarship.

Publisher

Bolin Centre Database

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)

First name

Stella

Last name or organisation

Papadopoulou

Email address

stella.papadopoulou@aces.su.se

Address

Department of Environmental Science; Stockholm University

Postal code

SE-106 91

City

Stockholm

Country

Sweden

GCMD science keyword

Earth science > Oceans

GCMD location

Ocean > Arctic Ocean

Dataset language

English

DOI

Time