Polarstern will depart from Bremerhaven on 20 June 2009 to do research in the Greenland Sea and in Fram Strait. This region has attained increased scientific attention during the recent decades due to its highly sensitive reaction to climatic changes. The main focus of the cruise leg is related to the change of physical properties of the ocean with special emphasis on long term variations. Both in the Greenland Sea and in Fram Strait, the Alfred Wegener Institute owns a long research history already which allows to quantify meridional heat fluxes, winter convection depths, heat and salt storage in the ocean, and to determine variability and trends of related physical parameters. The projects include station work, conventional as well as innovative autonomously profiling moorings, and the use of autonomous underwater vehicles. In addition to the physical measurements, paleo-proxy validation studies and studies of the Arctic ecosystem are carried out which cover the entire scale from microbiology to the largest species on earth, i.e. whales. The cruise leg will end on 10 July 2009 at Longyearbyen, Svalbard.

Chief scientist
Gereon Budeus

Coordinator
Eberhard Fahrbach