MOSAiC Cruise Blog 2019-2020

Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate

MOSAiC is the world’s largest and most comprehensive expedition to the central Arctic Ocean. Five UAF researchers will take part, embarking on multiple legs of a year-long journey onboard icebreaker RV Polarstern locked in the frozen sea ice and set to drift past the north pole.

The unprecedented Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate will capture the closest look ever at the Arctic to understand why it is warming faster than any other region on the planet. Hundreds of scientists from around the world will gather data related to the ocean, sea ice, snow and atmosphere from a chemical, physical and biological point of view.

UAF’s team will write a weekly blog, providing a rare glimpse into life as a scientist conducting research in one of the most extreme and unique environments on earth. An environment whose changes, although poorly understood, are already impacting sea level rise, storminess, ocean and atmospheric warming at lower latitudes.

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Polarstern locked in the ice with stairs leading down to the ice on the right. Melted surface ice in the foreground.

The German research icebreaker RV Polarstern will transport the MOSAiC expedition through the central Arctic Ocean as it drifts past the North Pole towards the Atlantic Ocean while trapped in sea ice. Photo credit, Alfred Wegener Institut/Mario Hoppmann.