Weekly Reports Polarstern
The Expedition PS116 Bremerhaven - Las Palmas - Cape Town
PS116 is the first leg of the Antarctic season 2018/19. Polarstern will leave its port of registry, Bremerhaven, on 10 November 2018 and arrive in Cape Town, South Africa, on 11 December 2018. An intermediate port call will take place o 18 November 2018 in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. Here, the majority of the scientific crew will leave the ship. In addition, six more colleagues will join the cruise. Polarstern will remain in the port of Las Palmas for three days in order to carry out 3D photo and Laser imaging of the ship’s interior. Ship time will be allocated for calibration of the echosounding systems by means of a sound velocity profiler and deployment of the underway-CTD (section Bremerhaven – Las Palmas). After leaving Las Palmas, a combined launch and recovery system (LARS) and depressor system will be tested. Furthermore, five floats will be deployed on the journey to Cape Town.
Scientific activities during PS116 comprise three different field of activities: training of early career scientists at the echosounding system of Polarstern (Leg Bremerhaven – Las Palmas), scientific en-route measurements and sampling, and activities and maintenance of logistics and IT department.
In detail, the scientific activities during PS116 will consist of:
POLMAR-TRAIN: Education and training of Master students of the University of Bremen, Department of Geosciences, and doctoral candidates from AWI, in geophysical methods at the echosounding systems (multibeam echosounder Atlas Hydrosweep DS3 and sediment echosounder Parasound P70)
Plankton genomics: Determination of plankton communities along a longitudinal gradient across the Atlantic Ocean by means of taxonomy and DNA-metabarcoding
OCEANET: Atmospheric measurements (physical parametres, aerosols) by means of remote sensing and LIDAR technique. Validation of ESA satellite Aeolus by ground-comparison profiles, ship-track permitting.
COSMIC-RAYS: Determination of cosmic rays along a longitudinal gradient across the Atlantic Ocean
NISAAA: Determination of the isotopic composition of nitrogen in ammonium and ammonia over the Atlantic Ocean
Testing of a depressor system
Identification of working processes in view of the development of a comprehensive safety concept for scientific work on board
Installation of software and hardware components in preparation for the drift experiment MOSAiC
PS115/2 - Wochenbericht Nr. 6 | 08. - 14.10.2018
About packing, cleaning, writing – and a thank you very much at the end
Our reseach program has already been finished on Thursday last week at 10:00, and we have started our journey back to Bremehaven. In this final week of the expedition, other activities than research are dominating our daily life. These are mainly packing boxes, instruments etc., cleaning labs, writing reports etc.
PS115/2 - Weekly Report No. 5 | 01 - 07 October 2018
About old stones, Arctic weather, farewell to the Arctic and Heinz Rühmann
Monday (01 Oct 18).The final research week starts. For today as well as tomorrow a full coring program for the geologists has been scheduled. At two potential locations selected for drilling within the IODP program multicorer, giant box corer, gravity corer and kastenlot corer are used successfully to sample the near-surface sediments.
PS115/2 Weekly Report No. 4 | 24.09. – 30.09.18
A mosaic of silence, storm, sea ice and kastenlot
Monday (24 Sep). A new week begins – quite similar to the last one. For the next three to four days we have to listen to the “music of the geophysicists”, every 15 seconds the monotonous “wum” will enjoy us.
PS115/2 Weekly Report No 3 | 17. - 23.09.2018
With geophysics and geology towards 83°05’N – the northernmost position of our expedition
Monday/Tuesday (17/18 Sep 18). A new week begins - fog, calm sea, ice free. Nothing reminds us that we are in the Arctic Ocean (but this may change soon when are steaming northwards end of this week!).
PS115/2 Weekly Report No. 2 | 10.09. - 16.09.2018
We are ready to start – About Super-Puma, polar bear, kastenlot and OBS
Monday (10 Sep 18). Shortly after midnight, (the first weekly report with positive news about the start of our research in a few hours has just been sent out) bad news for us: a case of medical emergency, the expedition’s program has to be stopped, we have to steam with full speed back to Longyearbyen – a long way! At 19:45, however, good news from the captain: tomorrow evening we will have a rendezvous with a long-range rescue helicopter NE of Svalbard at 81°N/41°E where a rescue team will take-over our patient.
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