Research ice breaker Polarstern
Research and Logistics
Scientific coordinator: Dr. Ingo Schewe
News
News from aboard will be available in the Polarstern app. Below you can download the reports additionally as weekly reports.
PS 146 |12 March 2025
PS 147/1 |13-19 March 2025
PS 147/1 |20-26 March 2025
FS Polarstern on tour
Port of registry | Bremerhaven |
---|---|
Length | 118 metres |
Width | 25 metres |
Max. draught | 11.20 metres |
Max. displacement | 17,277 tons |
Empty weight | 12,012 tons |
Commissioning AWI | 1982 |
Engine | 4 x KHD RBV 8M540 |
Engine power | 19,198 PS (four engines) |
Range | 19,000 nautical miles / 80 days |
Max. speed | 16 knots |
Operation area | Everywhere including pack ice zone |
Crew | 44 |
Days on sea per year | on average approx. 305 |
Shipyard | Nobiskrug, Rendsburg and Howaldtswerke - Deutsche Werft Kiel AG, Germany |
Scientists per day / long term sailing | none / 53 |
Polarstern is not only a research vessel but also a gigantic measuring instrument. Data are constantly collected aboard, some of them are also sent consecutively to different receivers. Further information about Polarstern can be found on the following pages:
AWI
Cruise Reports (data overview)
Extern
(Kopie 11)
News

Özdemir visits shipyard for the new Polarstern
Federal Minister of Research Cem Özdemir visited the thyssenkrupp Marine Systems shipyard in Wismar. There, he was informed about the current state of construction regarding the new research icebreaker Polarstern for the AWI.

Student training on Polarstern’s transit to the Antarctic
This weekend, the research vessel Polarstern is scheduled to depart from her homeport in Bremerhaven. In addition to the crew, 33 scientific expedition participants will be on board – primarily young researchers whose job it will be to familiarise themselves with using echosounders to survey the ocean floor.

Comprehensive assessment of the changing Central Arctic Ocean
Sparse sea ice, thousands of datapoints and samples, a surprising number of animals and hydrothermal vents – those are the impressions and outcomes that an international research team is now bringing back from a Polarstern expedition to the Central Arctic. After a four-month-long Arctic season, the Alfred Wegener Institute’s research icebreaker is expected to arrive back in Bremerhaven with the morning high tide on Sunday.