Only few days are left; we are approaching the end of the cruise. Last Wednesday we already entered the open ocean and left the Arctic sea-ice edge behind. On our way south, we passed an area inhabited by quite a few seals, and some of us were lucky enough to see whales. On Tuesday we had our last ...[Read more]
TRANSSIZ Expedition – Facts and Figures of the different scientific programmes
We have now started our seventh ice station and thought it is about time to summarize the amount of samples that were collected within the past few weeks during our TRANSSIZ cruise. Because we are scientists, we approached this summary quantitatively. In order to study the sea-ice habitat, ...[Read more]
Approaching mid-point of the expedition: Thoughts and experiences from the science team
We are approaching the mid-point of the TRANSSIZ cruise on the Polarstern and we wanted to hear some thoughts and experiences from members of the science team. We went around and asked cruise participants a few simple, rapid-fire questions, hoping to get responses off the top of their heads. Here is ...[Read more]
Every research trip a new adventure: Working place icebreaker
We are now into week three of the TRANSSIZ cruise to explore sea-ice processes in a seasonal Arctic environment. To date, we have successfully completed our work at three stations alongside ice floes and have really begun to establish a sampling rhythm. Now that we have a handle on our own workflow, ...[Read more]
Tiny Trace Gases in Arctic Sea Ice?
Valérie Gros and Roland Sarda-Esteve from the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE) in Paris have experience measuring trace gases in the ocean, but are new to working with sea ice. In addition to the gear they packed to work on ice floes, they brought their own air because ...[Read more]