The new
ship

The new ship

Frigid temperatures, dense sea ice, and beneath you, oceans thousands of metres deep and teeming with life, and lower still, a seafloor that holds information on the geological history of our planet: that’s where the new icebreaker will be underway. As one of the world’s foremost research platforms and the flagship of German climate research, the Polarstern is the gateway to the Arctic and Antarctic.

Polarstern will give researchers the opportunity to gain insights into the research on biodiversity and the progressing climate change.

The new Polarstern.

A ship like no other.

Flexible research platform

The ship is home to all marine sciences: from geology and geophysics to biology, oceanography, sea-ice and atmospheric research. Here, up to 90 scientific expedition participants and 50 crewmembers can find accommodation. The new Polarstern will offer them a safe haven for investigating Earth’s fascinating polar regions and will be equipped with a range of laboratories and fixed systems, from multibeam echosounders to sensors for meteorological observations, to digital infrastructure. Armed with this equipment and resources, the new Polarstern, just as her predecessor, will be able to operate year-round in the Arctic and Antarctic and gather data on those regions of our planet hardest-hit by climate change. After all, what happens in the polar regions affects us all: global ocean currents are changing, along with atmospheric circulation patterns, which affect the weather around the globe. The oceans offer a vital food source and carbon dioxide sink, room for rest and recreation, valuable minerals and natural resources, and open global transport routes. These services are now in jeopardy. The new Polarstern will give researchers from around the world the opportunity to gain critical insights into the progressing climate change our planet is experiencing, especially in the polar regions. Society urgently needs this type of knowledge so as to make the right choices regarding climate protection, environmental protection and nature conservation – for the future of the polar regions, for biodiversity on land and at sea, and for the generations to follow.

Whether fresh vegetables or bolts:
Resupplying the Neumayer Station III is an essential task for the Polarstern.

Designed for use in heavy ice

The new research icebreaker holds a “polar class 2” rating, making her suitable for year-round operations in the multiyear ice of the Arctic and Antarctic. This level of icebreaking performance (also by international standards) is needed in order to penetrate the “Last Ice Areas” like the southern Weddell Sea in the Antarctic and the region north of Greenland and the Canadian islands – areas for which observational data is urgently needed in order to gauge the impacts of climate change and detect critical changes early on. Today, climate change is already affecting ice and meteorological conditions, producing larger pressure ridges and heavier snow cover on the ice floes. Given these changes, the new ship has to be able to break through 1.8-metre-thick ice with 20 percent snow cover at a consistent speed of three knots. Moreover, the new ship’s dynamic positioning system makes her highly manoeuvrable, so that scientific fieldwork like collecting samples can be done at precisely the right site.

Vegetables and bolts for the antarctic

In addition to scientific expeditions, the Polarstern has another essential duty, namely resupplying the Neumayer Station III in the Antarctic. Located on the Ekström Ice Shelf on the coast of the eastern Weddell Sea, the station serves as the point of departure for Germany’s land-based Antarctic research efforts. Without resupply from the Polarstern, conducting research at the station would be impossible. The resupply runs cover everything you can imagine: from fresh vegetables for the station team, to cutting-edge IT equipment, to bolts and replacement parts for the station, to huge components, e.g. for the nearby windmill.
Both the Neumayer Station III and the Polarstern are prerequisites for Germany’s status as a consultative member of the Antarctic Treaty, i.e., as a member with voting rights. Signed in 1959, the treaty marked the end of competing territorial claims in the Antarctic, while also protecting the region’s habitat from military use and commercial mining. As a consultative member, Germany pursues no territorial claims in the Antarctic; rather, it stands for peaceful collaboration under the Antarctic Treaty, helping to ensure the ‘seventh continent’ is preserved for all generations to come.