• Record low sea ice cover in the Antarctic

      the end of February. The current expedition team on board RV Polarstern has just reported virtually ice-free conditions in its current research area, the Bellingshausen Sea.

    • An entire year trapped in the Arctic ice

      of all time: in September 2019 the German research icebreaker Polarstern will depart from Tromsø, Norway and, once it has reached its destination, will spend the next year drifting through the Arctic

    • This Evening Sees the Start of MOSAiC – the Greatest Arctic Research Expedition of All Time

      finally time: this evening at 8:30 p.m. the German icebreaker Polarstern will depart from the Norwegian port of Tromsø. Escorted by the Russian icebreaker Akademik Fedorov, she will set sail for the

    • Finally, we are let loose

      marvellous weather. The sun was shining from a blue sky while POLARSTERN passed the fjords towards the North-Atlantic. Finally, we are let loose. In particular, the newbies are thrilled by this new

    • Uncharted island soon to appear on nautical charts

      Antarctic on board the Alfred Wegener Institute's icebreaker Polarstern since 8 February 2026. In this key region for global ocean currents, the focus has been on the outflow of ice and water from the

    • Locations and Facilities

      max.schwanitz @ awi.de. _________________________ Diving from RV Polarstern RV Polarstern (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) The research vessel Polarstern operates in the southern and arctic ocean. As an icebreaker RV Polarstern enables to enter ice covered polar areas and to conduct diving supported underwater research under ice shields. For further details about RV Polarstern click here . _________________________ Diving at the German Polar Station Neumayer III (Antarctica) Fig. 1) Neumayer III Station

    • Giant sponge gardens discovered on seamounts in the Arctic deep sea

      partners discovered this unique hotspot of life during a POLARSTERN expedition and now report their findings in the journal Nature Communications . They stress the need for a better understanding

    • Why the tongue of the Pine Island Glacier suddenly shrank

      2017, researchers on board the German research icebreaker Polarstern successfully mapped an area of seafloor previously covered by shelf ice. A comparison of these new maps with satellite images of

    • Two New Records at the North Pole

      (CET) on Friday, 28 February, dropped anchor 970 metres from Polarstern, moored to the same floe. While the handover is in full swing on the MOSAiC floe, in Russia another icebreaker will soon leave

    • Expedition to Antarctica’s Glaciers

      on board the Alfred Wegener Institute’s research vessel Polarstern are going to depart from Punta Arenas (Chile) on 6 February 2017, bound for the Amundsen Sea – the region of the Antarctic currently