Researcher helps examine puzzling Arctic Ocean ice fog

A type of cloud that forms low near Alaska’s northern coast and over the Arctic Ocean lasts far longer than scientific understanding says it should.

Associate research professor Carl Schmitt is helping a federally funded research team figure out why it’s happening.

The work is important to a variety of interests, including forecasting, shipping, defense and local communities.

“These clouds exist for three or four or five days, where theory suggests they might last just an hour or two,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt is with the Alaska Climate Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. He recently received Office of Naval Research funding to participate in the Navy’s Fog and Turbulence Interactions in the Marine Atmosphere project, or FATIMA.

FATIMA’s goal is t