https://cdn.earthdata.nasa.gov/conduit/upload/5182/KeywordsCommunityGuide_Baseline_v1_SIGNED_FINAL.pdf 23.6 2026-03-19T10:41:57.720Z https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/KeywordViewer/scheme/projects/a4e79c11-6c9c-432f-9bf8-a10c3edf81c9 MIZEX Marginal Ice Zone Experiment (MIZEX) was an multi-national projectthat actually began in the summer of 1983. It was the most extensiveresearch project ever undertaken to study the ice, water and airconditions in the arctic sea between Svalbard and Greenland. Theproject which eventually had over 100 researchers, was headed byNorwegian Oceanographer Ola M. Johannessen.The drift ice that forms between Greenland and Svalbard, which formsan almost continuous sheet, had been a mystery for many years andalways presented challenges to Arctic researchers. They sought toseek the infulence of the huge air masses on the weather systems ofthe Northern hemisphere.MIZEX gained the scientists valuable information on the way ice isaffected by winds, current, waves and movement. Tests were done onthe thickness and toughness of the ice, as well as experiments to showwhat happens when the drift ice comes up against the warmer waters ofthe Atlantic Ocean.On its first year of the expedition, it was predicted to spend nearly&#364 million (U.S.), an amount which was to be expanded to&#368 million by 1984. Ice measurements were to be taken up until1990, where in the latter stages of the project, satellite photographswere to be taken of the ice pack. While the project was ongoing, fourremote-analysis aircraft measured the movements of the ice in specificareas; transmitting the data to the telemetry station at Troms?, whichtransmitted the data back to the researchers on the ice.