One central task during the first phase of MOSAiC has been completed. Supported by the highly experienced crew and the not less experienced pilots of the MI-8 helicopters, an international team of scientists onboard Akademik Fedorov successfully deployed the so-called Distributed Network. This is the complex system of buoys and measurement instruments that is now drifting in the environs of the central observatory Polarstern in a distance of up to 50 kilometres.
The larger and smaller sites were partially deployed from aboard the ship, with scientists using the gangway to get access to the ice. In part, they were also deployed on smaller ice floes using helicopters. However, the deployment of the complicated instruments of the Distributed Network on thin and fragile ice presented quite a challenge – a challenge the scientists were also able to take on owing to the wealth of experience and knowledge of the Russian team of AARI sea ice experts.
You can find the latest news directly from the Arctic on the MOSAiC channels on Twitter (@MOSAiCArctic) and Instagram (@mosaic_expedition). For further information on the expedition, please visit the MOSAiC web app to follow Polarstern’s drift route live: follow.mosaic-expedition.org. Every day a new report from the expedition appears here.
On the English project website you can find profound scientific information: www.mosaic-expedition.org.