POLARSTERN long-term expedition planning

This page provides an overview of all the main-user applications considered in the expedition planning so far.

Potential secondary-user applicants please contact respective PIs from the main-user applications to closely coordinate general conditions for your own possible application.

Polarstern longterm plan

Transits and Expeditions - Antarctic 2023/2024

PS140; Project: EASI-2 (GPF 20-2_011)

Goals:

Earth’s largest ice sheet, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), may be more vulnerable to rising temperatures than previously thought and hence is a sleeping giant with regard to potential near-future sea level contributions. It received remarkably little scientific attention in the past. Today, the water column structure of the SO largely prevents pronounced melting of the EAIS. This state may change if the position and strength of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) was to change in the near-future. EASI-2 is part of a set of three coordinated but independent expeditions targeting the evolution and dynamics of the EAIS and its interaction with changes in SO circulation. Our expedition focuses on recording the history of the position of the ACC and major SO fronts, the status of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) formation today and in the past, as well as a range of additional hydrographic and chemical parameters. Operations on the East Antarctic shelf, as well as on land will provide a wealth of new insights into recent EAIS retreat processes. We will retrieve geological core material and water column samples across oceanic fronts in the western and eastern Indian sector of the SO, and conduct marine geological, palaeolimnological, geomorphological and geodetic investigations along the EAIS margin. The modern water column will be sampled along the cruise transect, providing the reference frame for water mass hydrologic, geochemical, as well as carbon cycle parameter reconstructions. The main research questions to be addressed during EASI-2 are (i) the ice-proximal climatic and environmental changes from the last glacial until today, (ii) the Pleistocene evolution of the SO frontal system, and (iii) the concurrent development of AABW formation and its export to more northern regions.

Principal Investigator:
Marcus Gutjahr (GEOMAR)
E-Mail

Participants: 38
Free berths: 5

Period:
November 2023 - January 2024

Workdays at sea (add. transit-time):
70(-)

Working Area:
Southern Ocean

Disciplines: Marine Geology, Palaeoceanopgraphy, Chemical Oceanography, Palaeoclimatology, Bathymetry, Palaolimnology, Geology, Geodesy
 

International/national collaboration: MARUM, NIOZ (NL), NOC (UK), IMAS and UTAS (Australia), Aerogeodeziya (Russia), ETHZ (CH), CALTECH (USA), Gif (France), Uni Bern (CH), LDEO (USA)
 

PS141; Project: EASI-3 (GPF 20-2_069)

Goals:

Ice sheet fluctuations in East Antarctica are known to have direct impact on global sea level, but also on the global heat balance and the environmental conditions in and above the Southern Ocean. Research on the ice sheet variability on different timescales has mainly focused on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). In contrast, little is known so far on how the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) responds to climate change. This is particularly true for the interaction between the marine grounded margin at the connection between continental ice sheet and the adjacent shelf seas. During the proposed cruise we intent to collect new field data and samples for a better understanding of EAIS interactions with climate during the Neogene with one focus on the last 50,000 years, the last glacial-interglacial transition, and the other covering time scales of the relevant warmer-than-present times of the Pliocene, Miocene and Oligocene. The study area proposed is the coast and continental shelf between 85°E and 115°E (from Wilhelm II to Wilkes Land), which is poorly investigated but known for at least partial ice-free conditions during the last glacial. Our approach is multidisciplinary and includes marine as well as land-based activities. Sediment records from the continental shelf as well as coastal lagoons and lakes will be cored, following bathymetric and shallow-seismic surveys, in order to decipher the lateral extent and timing of glacial advances and retreats along with changes in oceanography, sea-ice and lake-ice cover, and limnology. In addition, GPS measurements and relative sea-level data from terrestrial key locations are combined to derive mass changes of the EAIS during the late Pleistocene. Deeper seismic surveys will form the second focus on investigating subbottom sedimentary bedforms and glaciotectonic structures in order to imply on the Eocene/Oligocene to Late Quaternary development of the EAIS.

Principal Investigator:
Sebastian Krastel-Gudegast
E-Mail

Participants: 53
Free berths: 5

Period:
February - March 2024

Workdays at sea (add. transit-time):
70(-)

Working Area:
Southern Ocean

Disciplines: Marine geology, Marine geophysics, Land geology, Land geodesy geochemistry, sedimentology, palaeoceanography, palaeoclimatology,
seismics palaeolimnology, geomorphology, glaciology
 

International/national collaboration: Australian National University;  University of Tasmania, Hobart; AARI, Russia; Macquarie University, Australia;  GEUS, Denmark.
 

PS142; Project: TRANSIT 2024

Goals: Transit cruise Walvis Bay - Las Palmas - Bremerhaven

Principal Investigator: 

Simon Dreutter
E-Mail: 

Participants: 47
Free berths: 

Period:
April 2024

Workdays at sea (add. transit-time):
28

Working Area:
Transit Walvis Bay - Las Palmas - Bremerhaven

Disciplines:
Logistics

International/national collaboration:
 

Expeditions 2024 to the Arctic

PS143/1 & PS143/2; Project: FRAM HAUSGARTEN Frank Wenzhöfer & Katja Metfies (GPF23-1_013)

Goals:
• Long-term ecological research in the water column and at the seafloor to detect and track the impact of large-scale environmental changes and pollutants in the transition zone between the northern North Atlantic and the central Arctic Ocean, and to determine the factors controlling Arctic deep-sea biodiversity.
• Permanent presence at sea, from surface to depth, for the provision of near real-time data on climate variability and ecosystem change in an Arctic marine system. Annual maintenance and exchange of fixed and mobile autonomous scientific platforms (e.g. moorings, benthic crawler, bottom-lander) and sensors (e.g. RAS, O2, CO2)
• Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and Bottom-Lander/Crawler based biological in situ long-term studies and experiments, simulating Climate Change related impacts on deep-sea benthic communities.

Principal Investigators:

Frank Wenzhöfer
E-Mail

Katja Metfies
E-Mail

Participants: 2 x 50
Free berths: -

Period:
June - August 2024

Days at sea:
61

Working Area: Fram Strait

Disciplines: Marine Technology, Physical Oceanography, Long-Term Observations (LTO), Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER), Marine Biology, including Ocean Optics, Planktology, Sedimentology, Biogeochemistry, Microbiology, and Benthology

International/national collaboration: MOSAiC, SIOS, ICOA and EU-projects: HiAOOS, EPOC, AtlantEco, OBAMA-Next, Arctic Passion as well as the Nansen Legacy project

PS144; Project: ARCWATCH-2 (GPF 20-2_070)

Goals:

The observation of the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) in an era of rapid change is one of the most urgent tasks of polar research, in particular in view of an early detection of processes of potentially far-reaching consequences for the Earth system, such as changes in nutrient supply, atmospheric depositions, or release of fossil carbon from coasts. Time series are particularly valuable because they reveal the temporal evolution of the Arctic Ocean. In order to acquire these data, we apply for the Expedition “TransArc3”, which had already been approved and scheduled for 2019 but was cancelled due to logistic requirements. During this expedition, we plan to capture the change of the Arctic Ocean in comparison to earlier (Transarc, Transarc2) and following (ArcWatch-2, Arcwatch-3) expeditions using a set of physical, (bio)geochemical and biological parameters that mirror or impact large-scale environmental processes, and to determine the respective contributions of different sources. This expedition forms part of a framework of international consortia (GEOTRACES, ArcWatch-LTO). It is supported by FRAM observatory technology, and contributes to a time series of four expeditions to the CAO in the POF4 “Changing Earth – Sustaining our Future” starting in 2022 (ArcWatch 1-4). The ArcWatch cruises have different foci, but they are linked by a set of core variables and re-visited stations to continue a >30yr time series of 3D-distributions in the water column of the Arctic Ocean. The selected stations are based on locations and variables that have been observed in the past. The quasi-synoptic survey of the CAO and the Eurasian continental slope connects to autonomous year-round observations and remote sensing and provides context to the Fram Strait LTO, the winter drift experiment MOSAiC (2019/20) and the Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) (2020/2021). This mission is the first of its kind after a 7 years gap (PS94), hence crucial to continue the assessment on sub-decadal timescales.

Principal Investigator:
Benjamin Rabe
E-Mail

Participants: 50
Free berths: -

Period:
August - October 2024

Workdays at sea (add. transit-time):
55 (9 - 13)

Working Area:
Central Arctic Ocean and adjacent continental slopes

Disciplines:
Chemical Oceanography; Physical Oceanography; Pelagic, Benthic and Sea-ice Biology; Sea-ice Physics

International/national collaboration:
GEOTRACES programme (SCOR), Arctic ROOS, EuroGOOS; Supply for FRAM/MIDO, part of ArcWatch-
LTO, IABP. Co-operation with Russia, UK, France, Switzerland, Japan

Contribution to PoF IV:
This expedition forms part of a framework of international consortia (GEOTRACES, ArcWatch-LTO). It is supported by FRAM observatory technology, and contributes to a time series of four expeditions to the CAO in the POF4 “Changing Earth – Sustaining our Future” starting in 2022 (ArcWatch 1-4).

Transits and Expeditions - Antarctic 2024/2025

PS145; Project: TRANSIT 2024

Goals: Transit cruise Bremerhaven - Las Palmas - Walvis Bay

Principal Investigator:
Claudia Hanfland
E-Mail

Participants: 50
Free berths: 10

Period:
November - December 2024

Workdays at sea (add. transit-time):
27

Working Area:
Transit Bremerhaven - Las Palmas - Walvis Bay

Disciplines:
- Logistics
- Graduate Schools
 

PS146; Project: HAFOS Olaf Boebel (GPF23-1_015)

Goals:
Decadelong AWI-led investigations under the umbrella of HAFOS (Hybrid Antarctic Float and Ocean Observatory) combined shipboard surveys with oceanographic moorings and autonomous floats, and contributed significantly to the understanding of the circulation and the quantification of decadal variability and warming trends.The Weddell Sea features a rich and diverse ecosystem, complex sea-ice dynamics and intense ocean circulation. The physical and biogeochemical processes that prevail in the central Weddell Sea and the water mass formation on the heavily ice-covered southern and western shelves provide an important contribution to the global ocean circulation, sea level, and carbon sequestration.
The expedition aims at performing mooring and float operations, as well as shipboard physical and biogeochemical sampling:
i) along the Prime Meridian Transect between 50°S and the Antarctic continent;
ii) across the interior Weddell Gyre;
iii) in the gyre’s outflow region (Joinville Island transect) at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula;
iv) inflow region off Kapp Norvegia.

Principal Investigators:

Olaf Boebel
E-Mail

Participants: 50
Free berths: -

Period:
December 2024 - March 2025

Days at sea:
77

Working Area: The working area is the Weddell Gyre and adjacent southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current.The bounding coordinates are: 20°E - 70°W, 50°S - 78°S.

Disciplines: Physical oceanography; marine chemistry; biological oceanography; climate research. Specific work directions: hydrography, marine biogeochemistry, marine acoustic ecology, cetology

International/national collaboration: GLODAP; GOOS; ICOS; SOCAT

PS147; Project: TRANSIT 2025

Goals: Transit cruise Punta Arenas - Bremerhaven

Principal Investigator: 

NN
 

Participants: 50
Free berths: 20

Period:
March - April 2025

Workdays at sea (add. transit-time):
28

Working Area:
Transit Punta Arenas - Bremerhaven

Disciplines:
Logistics

 

Expeditions 2025 to the Arctic

PS148; Project: FRAM HAUSGARTEN Jennifer Dannheim (GPF24-1_007)

Goals:
• Long-term ecological research in the water column and at the seafloor to detect and track the impact of large-scale environmental changes and pollutants in the transition zone between the northern North Atlantic and the central Arctic Ocean, and to determine the factors controlling Arctic deep-sea biodiversity.
• Permanent presence at sea, from surface to depth, for the provision of near real-time data on climate variability and ecosystem change in an Arctic marine system. Annual maintenance and exchange of fixed and mobile autonomous scientific platforms (e.g. moorings, benthic crawler, bottom-lander) and sensors (e.g. RAS, O2, CO2)
• Bottom-Lander/Crawler based biological in situ long-term studies and experiments, simulating Climate Change related impacts on deep-sea benthic communities.
• providing daily near-real time data on ocean surface and deep-water properties.
• providing a record documenting the warming of the Atlantic Water inflowing to the Arctic Ocean and its associated changes in transport and properties.
• study interactions and feedback mechanisms between the atmo-, cryo-, hydro-, bio-, and geosphere.
• obtain observations which link variations of daily (e.g., relevant for the preconditioning for phytoplankton blooms) to inter-annual (e.g., relevant to decipher decadal trends) timescales with processes in the atmo-, cryo-, hydro-, bio- and geosphere.
• quantify budgets and transports of energy and matter at different spatio-temporal resolutions from seasonal dynamics to inter-annual differences and decadal changes.
• identify the mechanisms which shape biodiversity of pelagic and benthic communities.
• assess the resilience of Arctic marine organisms and identify indicator species for community changes.
• contribute data for the assessment of ecosystem functions, services and the role of biodiversity therein.
• provide data for assessing the quality of remote sensing observations and of models simulating current and future changes in the Arctic Ocean.
• decipher how climate change mechanisms in the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean are coupled.
• assess plastic pollution in sea-ice, water-column and on the seafloor and benthic organisms to investigate long-term trends in plastic pollution and uptake in the food web.

Principal Investigators:

Jennifer Dannheim
E-Mail

Participants: 40
Free berths: 10

Period:
June - July 2025

Days at sea:
35

Working Area: Fram Strait

Disciplines: Marine Technology, Physical Oceanography, Long-Term Observations (LTO), Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER), Marine Biology, including Ocean Optics, Planktology, Sedimentology, Biogeochemistry, Microbiology, and Benthology

International/national collaboration: MOSAiC, SIOS, ICOA and EU-projects: HiAOOS, EPOC, AtlantEco, OBAMA-Next, Arctic Passion as well as the Nansen Legacy project

PS149; Project: CONTRASTS (ARCWATCH-3); Marcel Nicolaus (to be reviewed by GPF)

Goals:
• Study the different key ice-ocean-ecosystem regimes with the same interdisciplinary team in the same year and season
• Characterize key processes that determine the observed sea ice, ocean, atmosphere and ecosystem changes in the Arctic Ocean
• Improve process understanding from floe- to regional-scales by merging ice station work, airborne observations, distributed networks and satellite data
• Add a spatial component to the MOSAiC time series and repeat a core set of observations carried out during ArcWatch 1-2 and aircraft c

Principal Investigator:
Marcel Nicolaus
E-Mail

Participants: 40
Free berths: 13

Period:
July - September 2025

Days at sea:
70

Working Area: Central Arctin Ocean

Disciplines: Sea ice physics, physical oceanography, ecology, meteorology, biogeochemistry

International/national collaboration: IABP, CLIVAR, CliC, GOOS, GCOS, WCRP

 

PS150; Project: EGC-Sources (GONE Green); Torsten Kanzow (GPF 24_1_009)

Goals:  
•the North Greenland and Transpolar source branches of the East Greenland Current
•their impact on marine terminating glaciers
•biogeochemical cycling / offshore carbon transport & export •glaciation and geological history of FramStrait   

Principal Investigator:
Torsten Kanzow
E-Mail

Participants: 40
Free berths: 17

Period:
September - October 2025

Days at sea:
45

Working Area: Arctic

Disciplines: Physical oceanography, biogeochemistry, biological oceanography, sea ic geophysics, geology, geochemistry

International/national collaboration: GriOOS, GROCE, AC3, ArcticPassion, EPOC, NOW2NEW, Healy/Pickart, NCRC, GEOEO, GoNorth, TITANICA, RED-AO

Transits and Expeditions - Antarctic 2025/2026

PS151; Project: TRANSIT 2025

Goals:
Transit cruise Bremerhaven - Walvis Bay

Principal Investigator:
NN

Participants: 50
Free berths: 20

Period:
December 2025

Workdays at sea (add. transit-time):
28

Working Area:
Transit Bremerhaven - Walvis Bay

Disciplines:
Logistics

PS152; Project: WOBEC Heike Link (GPF 24_1_019) - Neumayer Support

GOALS:
• Provide a baseline of the present state of biodiversity and ecosystem functions in the EWS against which change can be measured
• Study key variables of carbon, nutrient, and trace-element fluxes and cycling within and between the main ecosystem compartments sea ice, water column, and sea floor, as well as key species responsible for the carbon and nutrient transfer
• Ground-truth autonomous sampling devices for key biological variable

Principal Investigator:
Heike Link
E-Mail

Participants: 40
Free berths: 13

Period:
December 2025 - February 2026

Days at sea:
40

Working Area: Weddell Sea

Disciplines: Marine and sea-ice biology, biogeochemistry and physical dynamics

International/national collaboration: Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Poland and United Kingdom

PS153; Project: SWOS Christian Haas/Ilka Peeken (GPF20-2/005)

GOALS:
Collection of multidisciplinary information on the western Weddell Sea continental slope, shelf, and near Larsen C in order to

  1. understand sea ice/ ice shelf/ ocean processes and to assess their impact on hydrographic and nutrient properties as well as on carbon fluxes from the surface to the deep sea
  2. continue observations of long-term change and variability of sea ice thickness distribution and snow properties
  3. characterize water masses and understand their formation, dispersion, pathways and shelf-basin exchange mechanisms
  4. understand and map cryo-pelagic and cryo-benthic processes, and ecosystem parameters and gradients in dependence of sea ice conditions

 

Principal Investigators:
Christian Haas
E-Mail

Ilka Peeken
E-Mail

Participants: 40
Free berths: 13

Period:
February - April 2026

Days at sea:
63

Working Area: Antarctic Peninsula, Weddell Sea

Disciplines: 
Physical Oceanography, Sea Ice Geophysics, Sea Ice Ecology, Biological Oceanography and Biogeochemistry, Pelagic biology, Benthic Ecology, Bathymetry/ Paleo-Oceanography

International/national collaboration:
University of Bremen, GEOMAR, British Antarctic Survey, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of Siena, The Royal Belgian Museum for Natural Sciences (RBINS), Federal University of Rio Grande, Institute of Oceanography

PS154; Project TRANSIT 2026

Goals:
Transit Punta Arenas - Bremerhaven

Principal Investigator:
NN

Participants: 50
Free berths: 20

Period:
April - May 2026

Workdays at sea (add. transit-time):
28

Working Area:
Punta Arenas - Bremerhaven

Disciplines:
Logistics

Expeditions 2026 to the Arctic

PS155; Project: FRAM HAUSGARTEN, Autun Purser (to be reviewed by GPF)

Goals:
• Long-term ecological research in the water column and at the seafloor to detect and track the impact of large-scale environmental changes and pollutants in the transition zone between the northern North Atlantic and the central Arctic Ocean, and to determine the factors controlling Arctic deep-sea biodiversity.
• Permanent presence at sea, from surface to depth, for the provision of near real-time data on climate variability and ecosystem change in an Arctic marine system. Annual maintenance and exchange of fixed and mobile autonomous scientific platforms (e.g. moorings, benthic crawler, bottom-lander) and sensors (e.g. RAS, O2, CO2)
• Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and Bottom-Lander/Crawler based biological in situ long-term studies and experiments, simulating Climate Change related impacts on deep-sea benthic communities.

Principal Investigator:
Autun Purser
E-Mail

Participants: 40
Free berths: 7

Period:
July - August 2026

Days at sea:
35

Working Area: Fram Strait

Disciplines: Marine Technology, Physical Oceanography, Long-Term Observations (LTO), Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER), Marine Biology, including Ocean Optics, Planktology, Sedimentology, Biogeochemistry, Microbiology, and Benthology

International/national collaboration: MOSAiC, SIOS, ICOA and EU-projects: HiAOOS, EPOC, AtlantEco, OBAMA-Next, Arctic Passion as well as the Nansen Legacy project

PS156; Project: LAMEX 1; Catalina Gebhardt (to be reviewed by GPF)

Goals:
-Decipher the role of ridge systems for ocean current development and associated climate and environmental changes
-Elucidate central Arctic Ocean environmental conditions during warming climates (e.g., Miocene and Pliocene climate optima) 
-Investigate the onset and variability of 1) Arctic sea ice and 2) Greenland Ice Sheet in respect to paleo-sea level change 
-Unravel ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions that controlled the Cenozoic climate transition (Greenhouse to Icehouse) 
-Identify teleconnections between Arctic and Southern Ocean cryosphere developments   

Principal Investigator:
Catalina Gebhardt

E-Mail

Participants: 40
Free berths: 13

Period:
August - October 2026

Days at sea:
77

Working Area: Arctic Ocean

Disciplines: Geology, Geophysics

Transits and Expeditions - Antarctic 2026/2027

PS157; Project: TRANSIT 2026

Goals:
Transit cruise Bremerhaven - Walvis Bay

Principal Investigator:
NN

Participants: 50
Free berths: 20

Period:
December 2026

Workdays at sea (add. transit-time):
28

Working Area:
Transit Bremerhaven - Walvis Bay

Disciplines:
Logistics

PS158; Project: EvoWAIS Johann P. Klages (to be reviewed by GPF) - Neumayer Support

GOALS:
• Revealing both the timing of and environmental conditions just before, during, and after initial AIS formation at E/O boundary, i.e. transition from green- to icehouse conditions
• Identifying ice-proximal conditions during initial WAIS growth and during the mid-Miocene climatic optimum
• Constraining potential WAIS collapses during Plio- and Pleistocene super-interglacials in the key region for both understanding WAIS stability and defining tipping points
• Applying multi-proxy data from those critical time slices of AIS history as reliable target values for testing, validating, and improving numerical palaeo-ice sheet and climate models

Principal Investigator:
Johann P. Klages
E-Mail

Participants: 40
Free berths: 13

Period: January - March 2027
Days at sea: 60

Working Area: West Antarctica
Disciplines: Marine Geology

PS159; Project: KrillBIS Bettina Meyer (to be reviewed by GPF)

GOALS:
• Krill stock assessment and niche partitioning between whales and krill in relation to krill fishing activity
German contribution to CCAMLR in CCAMLR division 48.1
• The impact of key macrozooplankton grazers (salps, krill) on the biological carbon pump, iron remineralisation and its impact on primary productivity

Principal Investigator:
Bettina Meyer
E-Mail

Participants: 40
Free berths: 9

Period:
March - May 2027

Days at sea:
60

Working Area: Ant. Peninsula & Islands

Disciplines: 

International/national collaboration:

 

PS160; Project: TRANSIT 2027

Goals:
Transit cruise Punta Arenas - Bremerhaven

Principal Investigator:
NN

Participants: 50
Free berths: 20

Period:
May - June 2027

Workdays at sea (add. transit-time):
28

Working Area:
Transit Punta Arenas - Bremerhaven

Disciplines:
Logistics