[ad_1]
The most expensive and complex expedition in the Arctic is coming to an end. Not only the corona virus, but also an arctic fox almost caused the project to fail.
When the German research vessel “Polarstern” returns to its home port of Bremerhaven after a year in the Arctic on Monday, expedition leader Markus Rex will also be on board. The atmospheric physicist accompanied three of the five stages of the “Mosaic” expedition and was therefore one of the longest on board. Behind him and his team is one of the most adventurous journeys in Arctic research history, which began in Norway on September 20, 2019 and was temporarily on the brink of the corona pandemic.
For ten months, the “Polarstern” crossed the Arctic, docked on a huge iceberg. To observe, measure and document the entire ice cycle from freezing to melting, scientists were able to do this for the first time. They hope that the data obtained will provide important information about the Arctic Ocean and the climate crisis. Hardly any other region in the world can feel this as clearly as the Arctic.
“The ice at the North Pole has completely melted”
After the iceberg broke in late July in the Arctic summer, the last stage carried the “Polarstern” back to the North Pole by motor. What Rex saw there surprised him: “The ice at the North Pole had completely melted and there were areas of open water until just before the pole.” The “Polarstern” passed in record time where there was normally multi-year thick ice. “We watched the ice die,” Rex says.
It is one of the experiences that he and his team will remember from a journey of superlatives. With a budget of 140 million euros, it was the most expensive and logistically complex expedition to the central Arctic to date. Almost 500 people from all corners of the world went on board in stages. Rex, who works for the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), felt responsible for everyone’s well-being. Now he is happy that the trip has ended without major injuries. The worst was the broken leg of a colleague from the beginning on board. Additionally, some of the participants suffered minor frostbite burns, nothing unusual at temperatures as low as minus 42 degrees. “But they healed without any problem,” Rex says.
Polar Bear Guards Protected Researchers
Many things may have happened. There were many encounters with polar bears on the iceberg. Rex remembers a particularly complicated one: “The bear was only 40 meters from the polar bear guard.” The guard only managed to scare the animal away with a shot just above the polar bear’s head. The guards permanently secured the clod so that the scientists could carry out their work in peace. Most of the time, the noise drove away the four-legged guests.
Esther Horvath took spectacular photos during the expedition – she received an award for this photo of a mother polar bear and her cub. (Source: Esther Horvath / ZUMA Wire / imago images)
On the night of October 10, 2019, AWI photographer Esther Horvath was on board for such a visit. From the bow of the “Polarstern” he photographed a mother polar bear and her cub exploring the research field. “At that moment I had the feeling that it would be an important photo,” he says. In fact, the image won the prestigious “World Press Photo Award” in the “Environment” category.
A fox with a preference for power and data cables.
Other animals also came to visit us. Second Stage Chief Scientist Christian Haas recalls: “A cute arctic fox would have derailed most of the project because it liked to nibble on power and data cables in the ice and didn’t want to be taken away.”
Photographer Horvath was even more impressed by the polar night than by the animals. “This deep black fascinated me every day again, it was magical,” he says. Since the middle of October last year it was continuously dark. “On the iceberg, they worked in the light of the ‘Polarstern’ and the headlights. It always felt like a movie theater.”
When the sun slowly returned in March, Horvath was no longer on board. But geophysicist Haas witnessed this. For him, the onset of “nautical twilight” was impressive: “Because this pale light near the North Pole rotates around the entire horizon around us in one day, you can guess that the Earth is a sphere.”
The corona pandemic put the entire expedition in danger
Christian Pilz, an atmospheric physicist at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research in Leipzig, experienced the opposite of night: the polar day. It was on board for two months in the summer and had good working conditions due to constant brightness and temperatures around zero degrees. “It was too hot in our red safety suits.” Pilz and his colleagues had a tethered balloon the size of a public bus soar as high as 1,000 meters to measure atmospheric parameters such as turbulence, radiation and concentrations of fine dust.
Pilz should have been on board two months earlier. But with the onset of the corona pandemic, it was initially unclear whether the “Mosaic” expedition could continue. Due to travel restrictions, the planned exchange of onboard equipment by plane was not possible. Instead, two research ships with scientists eventually left Bremerhaven. The “Polarstern” interrupted its drift, the teams could be exchanged at Spitzbergen. The “Polarstern” returned to its iceberg and continued to drift.
Mulled wine at minus 30 degrees
Director Markus Rex is more than satisfied with the way the expedition went. “Not even Corona has diverted us from the path,” he emphasizes. “During the absence of the ‘Polarstern’, important measuring instruments continued to work autonomously on the iceberg.” Innumerable ice, snow, water and air samples and data were collected throughout the year. “They will keep future generations of scientists busy.”
In addition to all the work, there was also time for evenings of games, sports and celebrations. Not only was Christmas celebrated on board, but also birthdays, like Markus Rex’s in November. An ice bar was installed in the Scholle and mulled wine was served at minus 30 degrees. Rex: “The first sip is still warm, the second cold and the third is ice cream.”
