Fram Strait, Arctic Circle CNN  — 

It’s spring in the Arctic, and nature in the far north is just waking up, warmed by 24 daily hours of sunlight.

Here, in the waters of the Fram Strait, between Svaalbard and Greenland, is where ice comes to die.

The Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the global average, causing massive melting of sea ice. But while we know climate change is warming the Arctic air, there is a lot more happening under the ice that we don’t fully understand.

A team of interdisciplinary scientists is here on a study facilitated by Greenpeace, at the start of the environmental group’s nearly year-long pole-to-pole expedition. The scientists want to learn more about this threat beneath the ice, which could potentially destroy the cycle of life that starts here, and threaten the lives of people all over the planet.

The Fram Strait is the main gateway through which sea ice leaves the Arctic Ocean.