MOSAiC - Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate

 

It could be the largest-scale Arctic research expedition of all time: in September 2019 the German research icebreaker Polarstern will depart from Tromsø, Norway and, once it has reached its destination, will spend the next year drifting through the Arctic Ocean, trapped in the ice. A total of 600 people from 19 countries, who will be supplied by other icebreakers and aircraft, will participate in the expedition – and several times that number of researchers will subsequently use the data gathered to take climate and ecosystem research to the next level. The mission will be spearheaded by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). More information about the expedtion here.

Further map and data products around sea ice during the MOSAiC expedition can be found here.
 

Current sea ice maps for Arctic and Antarctic

more maps are availble here...
 

 

Aktuelle Beiträge

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Sea-ice Minimum in Sight

11 September 2019
In the coming days, we expect the Arctic sea ice to reach its minimum extent for this year. Based on previous years, the summer sea-ice minimum is reached in mid-September, but sometimes not until the second half of the month, depending very much on the prevailing wind conditions. For the MOSAiC expedition, which starts on 20 September, the conditions are generally favourable. Read more here…

Exclusive Sea Ice Information Before and During the MOSAiC Expedition at meereisportal.de

04 September 2019
The sea ice situation is an important parameter determining the drift and the implementation of the experiment. Exclusive data and information from the MOSAiC sea ice physics research will be available at meereisportal.de, which will provide information on the sea ice situation and the MOSAiC station’s drift. Read more here…

Federal Government releases new Arctic policy guidelines

30 August 2019
On 21 August the Federal Government approved the new ‘Arctic Policy Guidelines’, in which it declared its intention to pursue a consistent course of protecting the climate, environment and nature in this especially fragile region (see Figure 1). Accordingly, shipping in the Arctic, which leaves behind soot deposits on the ice and accelerates the loss of sea ice, is to be made more sustainable, and natural resources are only to be extracted in accordance with stringent environmental standards. Read more here…

Arctic sea-ice extent headed for the annual minimum – a retrospective on the summer

22 August 2019
We can say that the summer of 2019 has been characterised by unusual weather conditions in the Arctic, and that climate change is clearly progressing in the region. As Dr Lars Kaleschke, a sea-ice physicist at the AWI, explains: “Just how much sea ice is left after this remarkable melting season is something we won’t be able to precisely determine until autumn, with the help of satellite-based ice-thickness measurements. How far to the north the sea-ice margin has shifted will be an extremely important aspect for the launch of the MOSAiC drift experiment.” Read more here...

Real time course plot R.V. Polarstern
Where is Polarstern?



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