The IcePod

If anybody has an idea of the uncountable number of data points retrieved during the MOSAiC one-year ice drift, it can only be Antonia Immerz. Antonia is the data manager of MOSAiC, she has joined leg 1 and leg 4 onboard Polarstern, and she is one of the few lucky ones (or should we rather call her 'brave'?) who took a bath in an Arctic melt pond. In this ninth episode of The IcePod, we slightly change perspective by looking at MOSAiC from a data point of view.

Since 2018, Antonia has been coordinating the data activities and infrastructure to support the Arctic ice drift at the Alfred Wegener Institute. By taking on this role, it came together very well for Antonia who had spent her childhood snorkeling at the tropical beaches of Papua New Guinea. With Antonia, we uncover the perfect career development for a data scientist involved in such a big project like MOSAiC. Following her childhood dreams for the marine world, Antonia ended up just in the perfect place to combine her technical skills with her fascination for the ocean. 

Now, the data is where the magic happens. 200 terra bytes of data, about 15,000 actions to retrieve data, and Antonia knows there is much more data available from the comprehensive central Arctic study that came to an end this past October. For her and the data team, the work even reaches a new level, now that everybody is interested in analyzing the data. All success relies on the human factor, and communication is key to make it work – these are some of the lessons learned for Antonia to efficiently support MOSAiC members working with the data. If you listen carefully, Antonia even whistle-blows some (not-so-secret) tricks on how to potentially get access to data, even if you haven't been involved in the project earlier. 

Leg 4 was also called the hugging leg – it probably was the only place on Earth where one hundred people were still allowed to have physical contact while the rest of us, half-face covered by masks, made a huge effort to smile-with-eyes at the supermarket's cashier or the post office lady. In the meantime, they had a good time onboard Polarstern during 'Art & Wine' nights, and acting, knitting,  wood carving, or jam sessions. As a special treat of this IcePod episode, you will get to hear the MOSAiC song composed by Matt Boyer, Ingo Schuffenhauer und Felix Linhardt played during the last CTD cast of leg 4. Antonia was thus lucky enough to celebrate her birthday in the Arctic with great music and a party hosting around one hundred people – seeking some harmony, peace, and love in the time of Corona. 

If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Antonia created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2xtaHREvya1Bt2hD4BB9W2?si=eyc9YUiqTpWqySsREty6lQ 

If you want to listen to the full episode with music, listen to Radio Weser.TV on the first Saturday each month 12–2 pm UTC at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/, or check back with us at [email protected]

For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/

MOSAiC Mixdown: mini-podcasts from the Arctic by Sam Cornish
https://open.spotify.com/show/4WSd4ZSXBMZ3TLH1Og90Rc?si=GDbWg4emT36tbkRSAjvD6A

The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. 

Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto 

Music from 

In episode eight of the IcePod, we get to hear back from one of our previous guests – Stefanie Arndt who already spoke with us before leaving for the Arctic (Bonus Episode One). After 145 days away from her home in Bremerhaven, she tells us all about MOSAiC expedition leg 3. Stefanie Arndt is a sea-ice scientist at the German Alfred Wegener Institute, and she has a special sense of snow. While Antarctic snow has been her first love, this time Steffi ventured northern fields and flirted with Arctic snowflakes.

After she managed to survive the shortage of muesli brought from her home just at the end of the transit on board the Russian support icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn that brought leg 3 to the ice camp during the return of sun, Steffi led Team Ice during a challenging time: Not only it was the coldest leg of MOSAiC but there was lots of uncertainty due to very dynamic ice conditions. In addition, the leg got extended because of the pandemic that let no aircraft leaving from Svalbard for the planned exchange with the next leg. But Steffi and her team adapted well to the altered circumstances, studying spring conditions much longer into the season than expected –  as the days became longer the sea ice energy and ice albedo changed and eventually the MOSAiC ice floe became a mosaic of floes…

What to do when something's becoming very urgent on the ice? Steffi gives some yet unknown insights to the logistic challenges of MOSAiC. Or did you already know that pee bottles were an item due to the no-pee policy for MOSAiC field work?

Even polar scientists are not immune to Arctic temperatures so one has to find a strategy for sampling snow at -40°C. MOSAiC's Smilla had a pretty elaborate way using warming pads and two layers of warm gloves under her pair of plastic gloves to not contaminate the snow. Another way to keep yourself warm is to "walk five hundred miles" across the ice ridges. Luckily, there was always hot tea when returning from a long day out on the camp to a warm and cosy home called Polarstern.

While Corona was affecting life on land, Steffi and the team of leg 3 had still chance to collect hugs before leaving the ice and go back home. Something she could draw on for the months to come...

If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Steffi created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2qnVuJVfblT9MjBPg2rhyB?si=e-OjEPiPQeKMaGSMaBhO_A

If you want to listen to the full episode with music, listen to Radio Weser.TV on the first Saturday each month 12–2 pm UTC at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/, or check back with us at [email protected]

For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/

MOSAiC Mixdown: mini-podcasts from the Arctic by Sam Cornish
https://open.spotify.com/show/4WSd4ZSXBMZ3TLH1Og90Rc?si=GDbWg4emT36tbkRSAjvD6A

The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. 

Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto 

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) 

CC BY (

Have you managed to make your hobby a profession? Everybody tries – Robert Hausen succeeded. For the seventh episode of The IcePod, we met with Robert Hausen who works as a forecaster for the German Weather Service (DWD).  He joined leg 3 of the MOSAiC expedition. Since Robert was a kid, he always waited for the snow to fall and grew up wondering about all kinds of weather phenomena. And this is where he ended up: Polarstern. MOSAiC has been his first Arctic cruise while Robert usually sails the Antarctic seas. This actually qualified him to take part in the coldest leg that MOSAiC could offer its participants.

Part of his job aboard Polarstern was to inform people every day at 8 am about how the weather will be like that day. For that, Robert had to look at different weather forecasts and choose the one that fits the best to ... well, we're not telling you but go listen to the episode!

Eventually, he was rewarded with a helicopter flight across the Arctic sea ice. This might have also consoled him for not being able to be back in Germany for his daughter's birthday end of April – leg 3 of MOSAiC was also the longest leg due to the rearrangements caused by the Corona pandemic. Another highlight for him was the crusted lamb that was served to the science team and crew on Easter Sunday. With Robert, we debunk some weather myths: Sheepy clouds don't actually bring rain, and red skies are not always foreteller of good weather.

If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Robert created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2oioLmjvubF0LP3fIJFEit?si=jKykmGMmTFmKuJwc0yUWbw

If you want to listen to the full episode with music, listen to Radio Weser.TV on the first Saturday each month 12–2 pm UTC at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/, or check back with us at [email protected]

For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/

MOSAiC Mixdown: mini-podcasts from the Arctic by Sam Cornish
https://open.spotify.com/show/4WSd4ZSXBMZ3TLH1Og90Rc?si=GDbWg4emT36tbkRSAjvD6A

The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. 

Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto 

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) 

Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) 

Photo credit: Christian Rohleder (German Weather Service/DWD)

The IcePod goes live and Antarctic! For our first live episode that we broadcasted during the APECS workshop "Antarctic Science: Global connections", we met with the Australian weather observer and Ph.D. candidate Vicki Heinrich. Well, actually, it wasn't only Vicki but we had another special guest: Vickie's pet cat sneaking around. 

For more than ten years, Vicki has been a regular in the Antarctic to look at the clouds and play with balloons, all courtesy of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). To be trained on the ten types of clouds, she found this opportunity once in a newspaper, and it saved her from the mining industry. To get paid to stay twelve months at a weather station in Antarctica still feels extraordinary to her – as are the beauty of the Antarctic icescape and the many friendships she has built along the way, both with colleagues and penguin colonies.

So why did Vicki then move into psychology? In 2019, she started her Ph.D. thesis with the project "Use of Weather and Climate Information: Risk perception and decision-making in the Antarctic" in order to learn more about how people use weather information to make their daily decisions. To get to know the other side – the user's perspective – is clearly an add-on to her career, and to us as her project got YOPP-endorsed. It turns out – as a preliminary result – everybody wants to know about the wind.

For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/

If you want to know more about the Association for Polar Early Career Scientist check the APECS website at https://apecs.is/

More about the APECS workshop "Antarctic Science: Global connections" can be found at https://www.apecs.is/events-archive/390-scar-2020-workshop.html?layout=*

Read about Vicki's project at https://www.facebook.com/UWCIAntarctica or at the YOPP-endorsement projects overview https://apps3.awi.de/YPP/

The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. 

Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto 

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) 

Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) 

Photo credit: Peter Hargreaves

For the sixth episode, the IcePod went overseas where we connected with Taneil Uttal in Boulder, Colorado. Taneil is a meteorologist at NOAA, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. To join the second leg of MOSAiC, Taneil didn't have to do anything but hire Matt Shupe – MOSAiC's co-lead – many years ago. How smart it sometimes can be to hire young people!

She and Anja Sommerfeld from the fifth episode of The IcePod were the female atmospheric force during the darkest hours of the MOSAiC sea-ice drift. As the leader of the Atmospheric Team, Taneil felt it was her main job to make everybody else's job easy. As she was standing on an ice floe in the middle of Arctic nowhere in darkness, hearing the same humming noise of the atmospheric surface flux station she once heard in hot-summer Colorado made her feel they had built a space shuttle that landed on another planet. Leg 2 being the only fully sun-free period of the expedition, it provided Taneil with the best opportunities to observe the most extreme conditions in the Arctic, and to measure all the 'zeros' during darkness.

Science makes just one (fulfilling) part of a scientist; there is more, and much more to Taneil. Spending the morning hours in Polarstern's red salon, Taneil volunteered for the leg 2 entry on the ship's guestbook – the whole lot of her impressions from the central Arctic she pieced together into a colourful vibrant drawing. If you're getting curious now (and you should!) check out the next PolarPredictNews newsletter.

As a senior scientist, Taneil is now very much looking forward to retire, "to be a scientist" as she says. For the remainder at NOAA, she aims to "make herself obsolete in order to build a team of people" that are going to continue her work.

If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Taneil created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4mESv4DB7h275C3K7Qvwdm?si=J17-hpThRJOBrr044m5xOA

If you want to listen to the full episode with music, listen to Radio Weser.TV on the first Saturday each month 12–2 pm UTC at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/, or check back with us at [email protected]

For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/

Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63A

MOSAiC Mixdown: mini-podcasts from the Arctic by Sam Cornish
https://open.spotify.com/show/4WSd4ZSXBMZ3TLH1Og90Rc?si=GDbWg4emT36tbkRSAjvD6A

The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. 

Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto 

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) 

Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) 

Photo credit: Michael Gallagher (NOAA)

Here is the scary episode of the IcePod. In the fifth full episode of the IcePod, we talk to Anja Sommerfeld, atmospheric scientist and project manager of MOSAiC. During Leg 2 onboard Polarstern, however, Anja had an additional role to fill: In the murderer game she happens to pick the 'wrong' ticket but brilliantly fulfilled her job as a murderer. Nobody ever suspected her, and colleagues were rather puzzled when Anja approached them to kill, of course just by saying so.

Anja not only had an excel spreadsheet of the people to murder aboard Polarstern but in general is one of the most organized people we met so far. For her job as a project manager, she makes to-do lists: for today, for next week, for the long term, and, guess what, Markus Rex has his own to-do list. Over time, she consolidated her strategy and through learning-by-doing, Anja grew as a project manager together with MOSAiC.
 
As part of Team Atmosphere, Anja woke up at exactly 7.13 am every day to launch one of the 77 early-morning weather balloons from Polarstern's Deck A (in total, there are four radiosondes launches per day onboard the research vessel ). Special conditions require special preparations: Because of the Arctic winter low temperatures, the weather balloon needed to be pampered in a bath of oil and kerosene before actually being sent up in the air.

Special guest of the expedition and Anja's highlight when working on the ice was Lady Miss Piggy. Everybody loves that big and hard-to-miss red balloon and her home, balloon town, which appears to be the prettiest place on the ice floe observatory. Preparing a flight with Miss Piggy can be a tough job though, as the drama queen is very sensitive to winds.

If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Anja created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5zjlqsxCq0yssOzBTNMqZ6?si=XHAiNhuTQXeCv-tIc_RMvQ

If you want to listen to the full episode with music, check back with us: [email protected]

For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/

Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63A

The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. 

Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto 

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) 

Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) 

Photo credit: Julia Wenzel (German Weather Service/DWD)

Here is the second episode on the YOPP Targeted Observing Periods, or TOPs. This time, we speak to Thomas Jung, head of the section Climate Dynamics at the German Alfred Wegener Institute and professor for Physics of the Climate System at the University of Bremen. Even more important, as the chair of the Polar Prediction Project's Steering Group, he is the captain and structured mind behind YOPP and PPP.

His ability to chair a meeting even with fever from his bed not only provides him with all the skills needed to steer the Polar Prediction Project during a pandemic, but has been the ultimate test of his leadership skills. Keeping a healthy balance between management and science is probably his secret to success, in addition to creating extensive but ultrapractical mindmaps and building an international network across the academic community and forecasting experts.

Thomas has also been the winner of our YOPP TOP Twitter challenge. How did he overcome the jumpiness of forecast? Here, he unveils his secret: Well, it's just like planning your next barbecue weekend (something we all look forward to during this COVID-19 summer).

Take your time between an ice cream and a cold drink and listen to this episode for a look behind the scenes of YOPP, how the project came to life and how it still surprises its master of mind maps and virtual meetings. 

For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/

Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63A

The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. 

Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto 

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) 

Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) 

Photo credit: Martina Buchholz (Alfred Wegener Institute)

Gunilla Svensson is a meteorology professor at Stockholm University, Sweden. She is also member of the Polar Prediction Project's Steering Group and leads the YOPP Processes Task Team. Within her role, she coordinates the YOPPSiteMIP project and the currently ongoing YOPP Targeted Observing Periods, or TOPs, aligned with MOSAiC.

Wait a minute – what is YOPPSiteMIP? And what is a Targeted Observing Period?
Well, listen to our new bonus episode of the IcePod where we speak with Gunilla about one of the key activities for the Year of Polar Prediction.

In our first episode of what we call the TOP series of the IcePod, Gunilla explains not only what these pan-Arctic campaigns of enhanced observations are meant for. She also talks about how the TOP studies of warm air intrusions from the mid-latitudes to the central Arctic are impacted by COVID-19. And: why Polarstern's current location in the Arctic is a paradise for every Arctic scientist.
Observations are just one part of the puzzle, and so is modelling. But blending the two allows to see the bigger picture. This is done within the YOPP Supersite Model Intercomparison activity – which is a long title so we just call it YOPPSiteMIP. Here, atmospheric and sea ice data from across the Arctic including MOSAiC, and respective modelling output are currently simultaneously examined.

For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/

Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63A

The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. 

Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto 

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) 

Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) 

Photo credit: Eva Dalin (Stockholm University)

When the world still has been in order and people were allowed to hang out in cosy offices, we met with Markus Rex, leader of the MOSAiC ice drift, who came to Bremerhaven for two days in February to join the YOPP Science Workshop at the Alfred Wegener Institute.

Markus Rex is one of those people who always manage to sleep well, even when the stress level is high. In his interview with us, he talks about the greatest challenges, nicest moments and biggest surprises during Leg 1 of the MOSAiC expedition. Luckily, coordinating MOSAiC means not only work to him: Finding those rare moments of solitude skiing on the ice floe, with the full moon enlightening the out-of-the-world Arctic landscape, gives him reward and energy. At the moment, Markus is preparing for his return to the Arctic with Leg 4. As excited as he is to see the ice camp in daylight, we wonder: Will he be able to sleep even during polar day?

For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/

Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63A

The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. 

Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto 

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) 

Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) 

Photo credit: Esther Horvath (Alfred Wegener Institute)

Remote Sensing Episode 2 of The IcePod is now online!
In this episode, we talk to Gunnar Spreen from the University of Bremen who joined leg 1 of the MOSAiC sea-ice drift. After the Moon Episode with Stefan Hendricks, we dive even deeper into how the two Space Lords, Gunnar and Stefan, use remote sensing techniques  to study Arctic sea ice. Gunnar brings his expertise on sea-ice physics and how to use satellites to tell us more about the status of the (decreasing) sea ice into the MOSAiC Project Board. Listen to why Gunnar did prefer studying sea ice instead of apple trees and how he likes his eggs cooked by Polarstern's chief cook on Thursdays and Sundays. Find out why Gunnar isn't happy with cloud uncertainties in satellite data and with scientists not taking part often enough in public debates. In this fourth episode of The IcePod, Gunnar explains to us how do microwaves help him to figure out the season's maximum sea-ice extent, why a carpenter is needed to help scientists fix their broken instruments, and he uncovers for us what people get as their birthday present at Polarstern and which MOSAiC team jacket he wore not only during the expedition but now and then also in his office in Bremen.

If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Gunnar created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6znTLn5FvVbV0iqUjixfsw?si=rnjItx6jTMSJckcdO_tMXA 

If you want to listen to the full episode with music, check back with us: [email protected]

For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/

Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63A

The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. 

Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto 

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) 

Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) 

Photo credit: Esther Horvath (Alfred Wegener Institute)