News

News from aboard will be available in the Polarstern app. Below you can download the reports additionally as weekly reports.
    
PS 138 | 12 - 17 September 2023    
PS 138 | 18 - 24 September 2023   
PS 138 | 25 - 29 September 2023

     

Where is polarstern?

Figures and facts
Port of registry Bremerhaven
Length 118 metres
Width 25 metres
Max. draught 11.20 metres
Max. displacement 17,277 tons
Empty weight 12,012 tons
Commissioning AWI 1982
Engine 4 x KHD RBV 8M540
Engine power 19,198 PS (four engines)
Range 19,000 nautical miles /
80 days
Max. speed 16 knots
Operation area Everywhere including pack ice zone
Crew 44
Days on sea per year on average approx. 305
Shipyard Nobiskrug, Rendsburg and Howaldswerke - Deutsche Werft Kiel AG, Germany
Scientists per day / long term sailing none / 53

 

News

Eyewitnesses to Arctic Change

ArcWatch 1

Eyewitnesses to Arctic Change

On Thursday, 3 August 2023, the research vessel Polarstern is scheduled to set off from Tromsø, Norway, towards the North Pole. For two months, a good fifty scientific expedition participants will explore the Arctic in transition as sea ice extent reaches its annual minimum in September. They will explore the biology, chemistry and physics of sea ice as well as the effects of sea ice retreat on the entire ocean system from the surface to the deep sea. Eleven years ago, Antje Boetius was part of the largest ever sea ice minumum in the Arctic and its consequences for life in the deep sea. Now she is returning with her team to compare

Working Together to Bring High Tech Below the Waves

Working Together to Bring High Tech Below the Waves

Over the next seven years, the three largest marine research institutes in the Helmholtz Association – the AWI, GEOMAR and Hereon – will pool resources to develop their marine technologies. Their goal: to more quickly and efficiently develop underwater robotic systems, ensuring that research can keep pace with the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

Polarstern Departs on Arctic Expedition

Deep Sea Research

Polarstern Departs on Arctic Expedition

Today, Monday, 22 May 2023, the Research Vessel Polarstern will leave her homeport in Bremerhaven, catching the afternoon high tide at ca 3:00 pm and bound for the Arctic Ocean. The four-week expedition, slated to end on 19 July in Tromsø, Norway, will focus on extended ecological fieldwork at the AWI’s deep-sea observatory Hausgarten and at the FRAM Ocean Observing System



FS Polarstern on tour