Polestar push

Abstract

In this International Polar Year, German researchers in the Antarctic are busier than ever. Michael Gross reports. In this International Polar Year, German researchers in the Antarctic are busier than ever. Michael Gross reports. She came in from the cold for a two-day spate of press conferences, meetings, and photoshoots, and then sailed off towards the ice again. The German research icebreaker Polarstern, run by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), has become a minor celebrity with the busy lifestyle to match. Upon completing her latest tour of duty, which mainly involved studies of carbon cycles in the southern oceans, the vessel docked in Cape Town for just two days, a quick photo opportunity with Germany's research minister Annette Schavan, and a meeting with researchers from the French ship Marion Dufresne. On February 10 the Polarstern departed again, on a new expedition addressing climate change. Carrying up to 44 crew members and an additional 50 research scientists, Polarstern is billed as “the most sophisticated polar research vessel in the world”. Since 1982, she has completed over 30 expeditions and typically spends 320 days per year at sea, commuting between the hemispheres to make the best use of both the Antarctic and the Arctic summer. The current mission, under the scientific leadership of Eberhard Fahrbach from the AWI, includes two main projects focused on recording physical and biogeochemical conditions in the oceans around Antarctica. Recording equipment aboard Polarstern, as well as ocean-deployed buoys and drift units designed to sink to deep water will be measuring ocean currents in the Southern Ocean, distribution of trace substances, transport of water bodies, and interactions between sea and ice as well as ocean and atmosphere. The expedition is due to end on April 16 in Punta Arenas, Chile. Polarstern's busy agenda shows to what extent the growing awareness of climate change and other environmental issues has placed research in and around Antarctica in the spotlight. But with the International Polar Year 2007/08, the research efforts are also accompanied by increased outreach work. The current Polarstern expedition has two teachers on board, who are reporting their Antarctic adventures back to their pupils in Hamburg and Kiel. Apart from her role as a research vessel, Polarstern also breaks the ice for research happening on the permanent Antarctic ice. Her services as an icebreaker are in high demand for the German research station Neumayer, used for continuous geophysical, meteorological, and chemical measurements as well as monitoring of atmospheric ozone levels. Located on the Ekström ice shelf at eight degrees west, the Neumayer station is currently in its second incarnation, but construction work on the successor, Neumayer III, is under way. Due to be finished in early 2009, Neumayer III will feature a combined building for research, maintenance and living quarters, perched on stilts six metres above the icy ground. From the bottom of the under-ice garage to the roof of the hangar for research balloons, the overall height of the construction will be nearly 30 metres tall. By contrast, the current Neumayer station consists of a pair of giant steel tubes hidden under the ice. Flying the flag for Germany's commitment to environmental awareness, it boasts the first wind generator on the continent and all waste is shipped back to Germany to be properly recycled. At Neumayer II, teams of between nine and ten people work through the Antarctic winter, as isolated as in a space station: they can contact the rest of the world only by radio. In February, a new overwintering team took over and is now preparing for a long dark winter. Unlike Neumayer, the second German research station in Antarctica accommodates seasonal visitors only. Kohnen research station is located around 700 km further south than Neumayer, and close to the Greenwich meridian. It serves as a logistic base for ice-drilling projects during the Antarctic summer. Consisting of 11 standard-sized containers, the station can host up to 20 people. The AWI set up this station in 2001 as part of the EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) project, which drills two deep ice cores with the aim of gaining a detailed overview of changes in climate and atmosphere conditions over the last 900,000 years. One drilling site is near Kohnen station, the other close to the French/Italian station Concordia. For many years, drilling through kilometres of ice or watching the weather in a place that is always freezing cold, may have appeared less than thrilling to all but the hardiest adventurers. In the current times of increasing concern about climate change, however, the observations of climate and atmospheric conditions conducted at the Antarctic research stations and onboard ships like Polarstern have been promoted to frontline science of the highest importance.