The Authors: Snorre Greil, project officer and Soley Kaldal, risk management and safety engineer, Department of Operations, Icelandic Coast Guard. It is getting late and dark in Iceland. The operator in the Icelandic Coast Guard (ICG) operations centre is preparing to broadcast the navigational ... [Read more]

By Andreas Muenchow, University of Delaware | Peter and I could hear the swoosh of our ocean sensors breaching the surface like a whale taking a deep breath before s/he dives down again. Only after the “swoosh” did we see the yellow, blue, and red tones of the sensor packet bobbing ... [Read more]

Today we host a post from Tatyana Dubich, head of the Communication Team.   When I started my PhD project, I saw just one way to go: get a PhD, go ahead as a postdoc with a goal to become professor one day. There was no other life after PhD I could imagine. At that time a good friend ... [Read more]

By Susanne Lunz and Christoph Knöfel | Sometimes one has to move quickly. We got the green light for our first flight after the daily weather brief in the morning which is short and sweet. We have half an hour to get ready, collect our gear, move it up stairs to the helicopter deck, don into ... [Read more]

By Michaela Meier | Everyone knows that I get sea sick, and I hate sea sickness. So, why am I here and what am I doing? I study earthquakes below the oceans off Africa, India, and in the Arctic. My teacher and mentor Vera Schlindwein at the AWI asked me about 6 months ago to drop 4 instruments ... [Read more]

Andreas Muenchow, University of Delaware, USA | A storm closed the deck of R/V Polarstern on our first day at sea. Within hours of leaving port in Tromso, Norway, with its sheltered fjords, mountains, and rocks, we entered the open Barents Sea where winds and waves hit us hard. Water splashed ... [Read more]

By Richard Jones, Durham University | Huddled at the waterfront of Tromso, Arctic Norway, I joined a large group of fellow scientists for my first scientific cruise – actually, the first time on any form of boat for longer than a day – so 5 weeks at sea seemed daunting. I was both excited ... [Read more]

Aspects of Practical Planning and Management of an Ice Passage About the Author: Captain Uwe Pahl was the master of the German research icebreaker RV Polarstern from 1996 until 2014. Since 2014, he has been the team leader of the construction supervision team of Reederei F. Laeisz for the ... [Read more]

About the author: Helge Goessling is a scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, specialised in climate modelling and sea-ice forecasting. Since 2014 he has been the Director of the International Coordination Office for Polar ... [Read more]

By Rafael Lazo Perez | The glaciers of Spitzbergen say goodbye to us while we departure slowly from this magnificent archipelago. The waves splash around the ship and make wet the deck, where we are having our final BBQ. A familiar feeling floats in the atmosphere. After four weeks of hard ... [Read more]