Underway observations

Our first expedition PS106.1 directs us along the shortest possible route into the Arctic sea ice north of Svalbard , in order to perform physical, chemical and biological measurements of the atmosphere, the sea ice and the ocean. I will report until arrival in Longyearbyen on June 21. After that, Hauke Flores from AWI takes over for the second section PS106.2 until arrival in Tromsö on July 21.

During the first week we are pretty busy with mounting the instruments and with the logistical preparation for the ice station. Many atmospheric observations are running continuously on board the ship. Vertical profiles of aerosols, cloud and ice water, temperature and humidity are retrieved from lidar, radar, solar-, infrared- and microwave radiometer until the end of PS106.2. So far, most of these remote-sensing devices are Polarstern-proved during the Atlantic transit cruises only. We are excited to see how they work under Arctic conditions. Also on board is a new cloud radar that enables the view into even thick high reaching clouds. Here, some teething troubles needed to be cured. After three days the device managed to produce nice vertical profiles. The daily highlight on the transit is our rubber boat operation, where we perform sea surface microlayer and radiation measurements.

On May 28 we have for the first time lifted a helium-filled kite from the ship to a height of about 500 m. This was a test for future ship-borne boundary layer profiling and worked just fine.

Following a request by the "Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrography" (Federal Agency for Maritime Navigation and Hydrography) we have deployed three ARGO floats and 4 drift buoys, which autonomously monitor oceanographic properties. 

We are still two days away from the sea ice margin, but most work now deals with the preparation of the numerous observations to be performed on the sea ice.

Best regards from Scientists and Crew,

Andreas Macke, chief scientist