October 03, 2019

The ‘Biggest Ever’ Arctic Expedition

2 minutes

The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on Earth. In fact, it’s warming at a rate of almost twice the global average. And, since what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic, the world is already feeling the effects: rising sea levels, changes in climate and precipitation patterns, increasing severe weather events, and so on.

As a result, researchers from more than a dozen countries have

launched the biggest and most complex expedition ever attempted in the

Arctic. They plan to freeze Germany’s

largest research vessel, the Polarstern, into Arctic sea ice, where it will

remain trapped for twelve months. The

ship will drift with the sea ice as the sea ice drifts. The vessel will serve as a research

laboratory, hosting a rotating crew of 300 scientists. The ice, the ocean, the atmosphere, and even

the wildlife will all be sampled. This

year-long journey will give researchers their closest look at how the polar

climate and its fragile ecosystems are changing.

Led by the Alfred Wegener

Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, the

Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate project

(or MOSAiC) is expected to cost about $150 million.

One major goal of MOSAiC is to improve strikingly uncertain climate projections for the Arctic. Climate models disagree on how much more the Arctic will warm as the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rises and sea ice shrinks. Some project a 5ºC rise by 2100 relative to the 1986-2005 average. Others predict a 10ºC increase.

Understanding the complex

processes occurring in the Arctic is essential for projecting the future impacts

of climate change.

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Web Links

Climate scientists prepare for largest ever Arctic expedition

Climate change: Polarstern leaves for ‘biggest ever’ Arctic expedition

Image courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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