• Shopping only once a year

      Antarctica look after themselves? In a blog post, the team reports on the supplies provided by the Polarstern

    • 5 years Welcome back MOSAiC

      It was the largest Arctic expedition in history: on 12 October 2020 our research vessel Polarstern returned after a year-long drift.

    • Week 8: Returning to Svalbard

      2017
      After concluding our 4 th ice station at the northernmost location of this expedition, Polarstern set a south-westerly course, heading for the position of our well-known PASCAL ice floe of PS 106/1 [...] mostly gentle passage through the ice. Our journey was inter-spaced with stations where we set out Polarstern’s rubber boats Laura and Luisa to sample the surface microlayer, conducted CTD casts and performed

    • How is the ecosystem around the Antarctic Peninsula changing?

      Polarstern expedition draws to a close in Bremerhaven
      In the autumn, the waters surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula were still home to large quantities of krill and salps, ready to spawn. Thanks to [...] such changes was a central topic during this year’s Antarctic season on board the research vessel Polarstern, which will end when, on Monday 11 June 2018, the ship returns to its homeport, Bremerhaven, after

    • Stormy Departures

      February 2016
      At midnight between the 19-20th of February we finally had the get-go for the FS Polarstern PS97 Expedition. It was a long way to this very point. An advance group had arrived in Punta Arenas [...] containers from the previous Antarctic Expedition PS96 with our materials. Unfortunately the FS Polarstern could not access the Mardones container loading pier in Punta Arenas, as it was still being occupied

    • Journey through space and time

      On Wednesday, 2 July 2025, the Polarstern will set sail from Tromsø, Norway, embarking on an expedition to the Arctic Ocean. Over the next two months, an international research team will analyse the feedback [...] parallel airborne campaign will complement the measurements and, at the outset of the expedition, the Polarstern will support the first ice testing of the new French Tara Polar Station research platform.

    • The changing Arctic Ocean

      After eventful and busy months, the Arctic season ends this weekend with the Polarstern expedition called ArcWatch-1. The team of almost 100 crew and scientists measured sea ice thickness and properties [...] sea. Their data show significant changes compared to previous expeditions. On 7 September 2023, Polarstern reached the North Pole, and on 20 September there was the world's first livestream of an ROV under-ice

    • Back Again: First deployed buoy from the MOSAiC expedition

      the Polarstern to the Central Arctic. It was the first buoy to be sent off during the MOSAiC expedition. It was part of the "Distributed Network," a large buoy network that drifted around Polarstern at

    • New equipment for the AWI - "Gardener"

      RV Polarstern starts the Arctic season
      Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) are setting out with the research vessel Polarstern towards

    • Unique Insights into the Antarctic Ice Shelf System

      Polarstern Expedition
      The world’s second-largest ice shelf was the destination for a Polarstern expedition that ended in Punta Arenas, Chile on 14 th March 2018. Oceanographers from the Alfred Wegener