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 145/1 | 4-5 December 2024
PS 145/2 | 5-12 December 2024
PS 145/2 | 13-19 December 2024

The German research vessel Polarstern during an ice station in the Weddell Sea.

Link Polarstern App

Where is polarstern?

Figures and facts
Port of registryBremerhaven
Length118 metres
Width25 metres
Max. draught11.20 metres
Max. displacement17,277 tons
Empty weight12,012 tons
Commissioning AWI1982
Engine4 x KHD RBV 8M540
Engine power19,198 PS (four engines)
Range19,000 nautical miles /
80 days
Max. speed16 knots
Operation areaEverywhere including pack ice zone
Crew44
Days on sea per yearon average approx. 305
ShipyardNobiskrug, Rendsburg and Howaldtswerke - Deutsche Werft Kiel AG, Germany
Scientists per day / long term sailingnone / 53

 

News

Student training on Polarstern’s transit to the Antarctic

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

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. 
Photosynthesis in near darkness

Photosynthesis in near darkness

Photosynthesis can take place in nature even at extremely low light levels. This is the result of an international study that investigated the development of Arctic microalgae at the end of the polar night. The measurements were carried out as part of the MOSAiC expedition at 88° northern latitude and revealed that even this far north, microalgae can build up biomass through photosynthesis as early as the end of March. At this time, the sun is barely above the horizon, so that it is still almost completely dark in the microalgae's habitat under the snow and ice cover of the Arctic Ocean. The results of the study now published in the



FS Polarstern on tour