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Pen Hadow measures Ice Freeboard. This is the height between the water level in the drilled hole and the top of the ice. This can be used to determine ice density (based on how low the ice sits in the water). Ice density is important as this will affect the longevity of the ice over the summer. Denser ice requires more heat to melt it.

Part of the research being carried out was to investigate the changes in the Arctic Ocean and how they might affect the ocean currents in the rest of the world. There is an overturning circulation in the Arctic caused by cold and salty water sinking.

The ADCP is an instrument used by oceanographers to take a 3D snapshot of the direction and velocity of ocean currents. ADCP stands for Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler. In this photo, you can see it about to be lowered through the hole in the ice to measure the currents in the ocean below.

A smaller CTD instrument called a Castaway, attached to a sled called a 'pulk,' is lowered through the ice by a member of the explorer team. This instrument measures the salinity and temperature of the water below the ice in the Arctic Ocean. This data will help us to understand how the global ocean circulation may be affected by changes in the Arctic.

muS/cm is a measure of conductivity that stands for micro-siemens per centimetre. Siemens is the SI unit for conductivity. When salt dissolves in the oceans it turns into ions. These ions conduct electricity much better than pure water. So by measuring the conductivity of the water, scientists are able to judge the salinity of the ocean.

Pen Hadow carries a Mora ice drill. The ice drill was used to measure the thickness of the ice. The team took up to ten measurements a day near their camp. They chose an area that was most representative of the ice conditions that they had walked across that day.

There is a lot of digging to be done in the Arctic. Two of the main tools are a shovel and an auger. The shovel is used to clear the snow from the surface and then the auger or ice drill is used to make a hole in the ice. This allows scientists to measure what is happening in the ocean beneath the ice.

Every day after walking for hours and dragging a heavy sled, the explorer team would still have to work hard to drill through the ice to take samples and get the data needed to understand the Arctic Ocean.

On some occasions the explorer team were able to measure snow column weight. They did this by collecting snow in the metal tube. The column is measured within the tube and using a spring balance the snow is weighed to give its density. Knowing the snow thickness and density is important as it affects measurements and observations made by satellites and radar.

Charlie Paton is putting a water sample into a plastic container. The team collected water samples along their journey to the North Pole. Each bottle was carefully numbered, so that scientists would later be able to analyse the different samples to see whether the Arctic Ocean is absorbing carbon dioxide and becoming more acidic.

Charlie Paton is putting a water sample into a plastic container. The team collected water samples along their journey to the North Pole. The bottles are carefully stored in a 'Yeti' box. The box is insulated and also heated to make sure that the samples did not freeze.