Global warming is top of the agenda for a major scientific expedition sponsored by Bermuda-based insurer Catlin Group Ltd.

The project — to be known as the Catlin Arctic Survey — will be led by British explorer Pen Hadow and will capture vitally needed data for scientists studying the impact of global warming on the Arctic ice cap.

The extensive programme of scientific measurements will include some of the most accurate and detailed observations of the thickness of the permanent Arctic ice. The measurements will be taken as part of a pioneering surface survey over a 1,200-mile route from the Canadian coast to the North Geographic Pole, beginning in February 2009.

Mr. Hadow's expedition has already secured support from United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), as well as the patronage of The Prince of Wales.

"Our scientific partners at Nasa, the US Navy's Department of Oceanography and the University of Cambridge want this data to assess more accurately the current state of the Arctic Ocean's rapidly disappearing sea ice and to predict more precisely when it will no longer be a perennial surface feature of our planet," said Mr. Hadow.

Stephen Catlin, chief executive of Catlin Group Ltd., said: "As a speciality insurance/reinsurance company, the potential effects of global warming will have a direct impact on our business.

"However, there are gaps in our knowledge and much of the evidence regarding the pace of global warming is not scientifically proven. Catlin is a company that manages risk based on hard facts, so we believe that obtaining this information is vital.

"The Catlin Arctic Survey will help inform all those who must plan for the potential effects of global warming."

Professor Wieslaw Maslowski, one of the world's leading scientists in the study of Arctic sea ice, based at the US Navy's Department of Oceanography in Monterey, California, and a lead scientific partner of the Catlin Arctic Survey, said: "We'll be integrating the survey's actual observations with same-day weather data to obtain near real time model estimates of sea ice conditions on a daily basis. In this way we can test the accuracy of our modelling of the ice's thickness and reassess our projections as to how long the surviving thicker ice is likely to last as a perennial feature."

Because the Arctic is so vulnerable to changes in the Earth's climate, it is a significant barometer, acting as an early warning for wider impacts across the globe such as temperature and the rise in sea levels.

The Arctic polar ice cap currently acts as a 'reflective heat shield', reflecting 80 percent of incoming solar energy, but it is disappearing quickly. The seawater below absorbs energy, resulting in thermal expansion and rising sea levels. Sea levels rose between 10 and 20 centimetres during the 20th century, and a further increase of between 20 and 80 centimetres could lead to 300 million people being flooded each year.

The ice cap currently covers almost three percent of the Earth's surface. The permanent central region of the Arctic Ocean's ice cover has receded at a rate of approximately 300,000 kilometres each year since 2001. This is equivalent to an area the size of the UK, Italy, or the Philippines and greater than the size of California. Scientists' current projections for seasonal total meltdown range from 100 years to less than five years.

The disintegration also has significant global consequences for planning in political, economic and business terms. Already there are political tensions over access to approximately 20 per cent of the world's remaining untapped oil and natural gas below the Arctic Ocean and new commercial sea routes through the North-West Passage.

The Catlin Arctic Survey team also includes women polar explorer, Ann Daniels, and polar photographer Martin Hartley. They will be pulling their sledges and even swimming between ice floes from late February to the end of May 2009.

The Catlin Arctic Survey will be equipped with sophisticated communications systems transmitting data, video and audio progress reports and news to the widest global audience. These reports will be transmitted from the Arctic using technology specially developed by Hadow's team.