How anchoring a ship to an ice floe will help fight climate change
Mosaic, a year-long Arctic mission aims to answer fundamental questions about global warming
In September, the giant German polar research vessel Polarstern will set off from Tromsø in Norway on a remarkable voyage. It will sail across the Arctic Ocean and after a few weeks reach a point off the Siberian coast, around 85 deg N 120 deg E, where it will attach itself to the biggest, strongest-looking ice floe its crew can find. And then, for the next year, the Polarstern will remain moored to this giant slab of frozen water as it slides, with other polar pack ice, round the Arctic Ocean.
For a year, teams of researchers from the ship will study conditions on the ice floe – which will be at least 2 sq km in area to satisfy researchers’ requirements. There they will set up instruments to study the atmosphere above them, the seabed below, the chemistry of the water around them, the Arctic Ocean’s sealife, and the behaviour of wildlife on the surface, including the occasional visiting polar bear.