News overview

In order to monitor, understand and even predict changes in Arctic sea-ice cover and especially its thickness, sea-ice thickness time series are indispensable.

In September, the summer sea-ice melting ends in the Arctic. Polar and climate researchers around the globe watch with great interest to see how much sea ice survives the summer.

In turn, the focus of the IceBird summer campaign was on continuing the long-term ice thickness time series at the southern end of the Transpolar Drift.

Analysis of the sea-ice conditions throughout the drift and comparison with previous years

The rate of Arctic sea-ice loss over most of July was relatively low, which makes it increasingly unlikely that a new record-low minimum extent will be reached this September.

Following a moderate decline in sea-ice extent in the Artic in June, the month of July began with a short-term phase of more intensive melting.

An expedition report by Dr Stefanie Arndt

This May, the sea ice in the Arctic showed average development compared to the past several years. Not until the end of the month did the sea-ice extent substantially decline.

RV Polarstern is equipped with various marine radar systems. During the MOSAiC expedition, one of these systems’ antennas took a new picture every minute, offering exciting insights into the dynamics of the ice pack in the ship’s immediate vicinity.

After taking part in a several-hour-long search operation in the Arctic, Martin Schiller developed FloeNavi, a system for navigating and locating measuring sites on sea ice.