Two Dutch explorers were studying the melting of Arctic sea but they are feared to have drowned after falling through thin ice.

Philip de Roo and Marc Cornelissen are the two Dutch explorers who were on a mission to study the Arctic melt.

On April 6, Cornelissen and Marc left from Canada and were heading north on skies from Resolute, which is the Canada’s northernmost outpost to explore the area.

On Thursday morning April 30, the base camp received an automated distress call to pick them up urgently.

The base camp is in Netherlands.

After they have received the call, aircraft was sent to pick them up.

Search was launched to find the missing explorers.

Helicopter has photographically mapped the area in the Canadian Arctic where the explorers went missing.

The helicopter when reached the area was unable to land on ice because the ice was very thin to support its weight.

The researchers were equipped with a sled dog and the dog was spotted near the hole in the ice, but the explorers were not found.

Marc and Phillip are presumed drowned after they fell in the ice.

The images mapped will be used to recover their bodies, “It is a difficult terrain. Weather conditions are also poor, there are blizzards raging,” said Marielle Feenstra, spokesperson from Cold Facts.

Canadian authorities who have initially launched a search a rescue mission will be converted to a recovery operation to find the explorers bodies

Researchers were on a mission to gather data for climate research in an area where summer sea ice cover was expected to be most resilient to warming.

It is a 2 month mission.

Researchers on last Tuesday reported that the temperature is warmer than expected and also about the thin ice ahead of them.

Cornelissen in voice recording said, “Today was a good day” it was “too warm”, so he had to ski part of the way in his underwear and boots.