Polarstern (ship, 1982)
 In Atka Bay , Antarctica, with logo for the year of geosciences , 2002
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The Polarstern , sometimes also referred to as FS Polarstern (research ship), is a research and supply ship designed as an icebreaker of the German ice class ARC3 . It serves to research the polar seas and supply the permanently manned research facilities Koldewey Station in the Arctic and Neumayer Station in the Antarctic . It is operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven and continues the tradition of the Gauß expedition , which was initiated with the first German south polar expedition of the Gauß from 1901 to 1903.
history
Construction and commissioning
The ship was developed from the end of 1978 on behalf of the Federal Minister for Education and Research in a subcontract from the Hamburgische Schiffbau-Versuchsanstalt (HSVA) by the Hamburg engineering office Schiffko (ship construction and development, taken over by Wärtsilä in 2006 ) and prepared as a complete design for the tender . After the public tender, the hull of the Polarstern was laid on September 22nd 1981 at the HDW Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel . The HSVA was responsible for the ice breaking technology with the associated ship shape.
All details of the ship with equipment and facilities including the scientific equipment as well as the completion were at the beginning of the 1980s at the Nobiskrug shipyard in Rendsburg on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in close coordination with the Schiffko and the ZSM (Central Offices of the Federation for Ships and Machines) planned and implemented.
The Polarstern was put into service on December 9, 1982 and since then has collected data for research and science in 104 expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic until spring 2017 . The deep-sea trench Polarstern Canyon and the submarine reef rock Polarstern Knoll are named in her honor in Antarctica .
Ship technology
As a double-walled icebreaker, the Polarstern can be used at temperatures as low as −50 ° C. With the four motors with a total output of 14.7 MW , ice floes up to 1.5 meters thick can be driven through at a speed of around 5 knots . Thicker ice can be broken by ramming due to the massive steel armor.
According to the Alfred Wegener Institute, the ship's engines run on diesel oil, which produces significantly fewer pollutants than the heavy fuel oil used on other ships . In the "DMA" variant used , it is only slightly worse than diesel for trucks. The ship consumes around 900 tons of fuel per month in use.
The size of the ship results from the diverse demands that are placed on the Polarstern . On the one hand, it requires a lot of storage and storage space for the supply of the research stations and a possible wintering in the ice and on the other hand there are appropriate laboratories, work rooms and accommodation for the research work of up to 70 scientists.
From 1982 to 1996 the dinghy Arctic Fox was on board, which was removed from board in 1996 due to difficulties in handling even in light seas and replaced by a normal lifeboat (a total of 4 lifeboats).
Major overhaul from 1998 to 2001
In 1998 a major overhaul of the ship was started, with which the technology was adapted to the advanced development. The aim of the modernization was to extend the life of the Polarstern by 15 to 20 years. The work was completed in 2001.
Research institutions
The Polarstern is at sea for around 320 days per year and normally travels the Antarctic in the southern summer months of November to March and the Arctic in the northern summer months.
Nine laboratories are available for scientific work in geology , meteorology , biology , geophysics , glaciology , oceanography and chemistry . Further laboratory containers can be stowed on and below deck in order to be able to carry out the various research tasks on site.
With the help of eight winches, samples can be obtained from a depth of up to 10 kilometers. Special gravity cores can take sediment samples up to 150 meters in length. Research equipment can also be lowered overboard into the water or onto the ice using the 15-tonne crane. The crane arm has a range of 24 meters and can be lowered to the level of the water surface. Another crane on the foredeck can lift even heavier equipment and supplies up to 25 tons.
Nets or equipment can be towed behind the ship via a swiveling A-frame at the stern.
Three Zodiacs (rigid inflatable boats) are available for transporting the scientific staff and carrying out research. A survival suit must be worn when using these boats.
In order to be able to carry out further investigations on the samples and living marine animals, the Polarstern also has aquariums and three cooling rooms that cool with temperatures of −32 ° C to +5 ° C.
The working deck at the stern can be heated so that the surfaces can be kept ice-free for safe working at sub-zero temperatures.
Two Bo 105 CBS 4 helicopters (since 2017 BK 117 C-1 ) can be used for reconnaissance missions over ice , for which there is a landing platform and a hangar at the rear. Below deck there are storage rooms for containers and snow vehicles, which can be placed on the edge of the shelf with the help of a crane . The helicopters and their crews are currently provided by the company Heliservice from Emden.
As one of the few ships, the Polarstern also has a device for the remote-controlled deep-sea robot Victor 6000 from France. Underwater gliders are also part of the scientific equipment.
Missions (selection)
Since its inauguration, the Polarstern has started expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic with international research groups, sometimes in conjunction with other research vessels such as B. Healy , the American Coast Guard's research icebreaker , or the Swedish research icebreaker Oden .
Independently of the special experiments and research trips, the Polarstern also serves as a weather station . In the northern hemisphere there is a dense network of weather stations on the mainland that regularly provide data for the weather models. On the seas, however, meteorologists rely on data from ships. For this purpose , weather balloons are launched every day that the Polarstern is on the move, providing data such as air pressure, wind speed and temperature.
- On the first Arctic expedition in 1983, the researchers involved Polarstern at the Ice Zone Experiment (MIZEX) Marginal . Furthermore, ozeonographic-biological investigations were carried out west of Spitsbergen and geological samples were taken in the Greenland Sea and off the Lofoten Islands.
- In 1986 the Polarstern carried out the Winter Weddell Sea Project . For this, she wintered from May 6 to December 14, 1986 in the area of the Weddell Sea , but without being enclosed by the drift ice. However, that happened involuntarily in December 1990 when the Polarstern got stuck in the ice of the Weddell Sea on its way to Antarctica.
- On September 7, 1991, the Polarstern , together with the Swedish icebreaker Oden, was the first conventionally powered ship to reach the North Pole. Before that, only nuclear-powered icebreakers and submarines had succeeded.
- In 1995 and 2001 two expeditions were undertaken to investigate the Eltanin impact structure.
- In January 1999, the Polarstern set out on her 16th Antarctic expedition to recover the then unmanned Filchner station , which was located on the A-38 iceberg that broke off from the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf . A total of around 120 tons of station material and around 50 tons of equipment such as snow groomers and sledges were picked up.
- At the end of 2000, Polarstern was involved in the EisenEx experiment. The researchers examined how a fertilizing the ocean with iron sulphate to the plankton growth effect and what influences this on the carbon budget has the atmosphere. The nutrient supply resulted in a plankton bloom , which produced a multiple of biomass than in unfertilized comparison areas.
- In the Antarctic early summer of 2004/05, the Polarstern docked on an ice floe and drifted through the Weddell Sea with it for two months. As part of the ISPOL experiment (Ice Station Polarstern), the scientists used the ice floe as a huge open-air laboratory and examined the local influences of the sea, ice and the atmosphere on global events.
- In October 2005, the Polarstern set sail for her 23rd Antarctic expedition and only returned to Bremerhaven in May 2007 after a 19-month stay. This was the third time that the Polarstern was in Antarctica for over a year.
- In summer 2008, the Polarstern was the first research ship in the world to circle the North Pole. The trip lasted from August 12 to October 17, 2008. The aim was to explore the Alpha Mendeleev Ridge and the Chukchi plateau.
- On January 7, 2009, the ship left the port of Cape Town for the controversial LOHAFEX expedition . A comparable fertilization experiment took place in 2004.
- MAX-DOAS measurements for the determination of trace gases have been available on board at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg since the late 1990s .
- Another Antarctic expedition started from Bremerhaven at the end of October 2012. Over the course of the trip, which was estimated to take one and a half years, divided into ten individual trip sections, the first winter in the southern polar region was planned. [outdated]
- At the beginning of January 2015 an expedition was canceled for the first time. The Polarstern had suffered damage to the hydraulic system of the left drive train during a supply trip to the Neumayer III research station in Antarctica. She returned to Bremerhaven with a stopover in Cape Town. An expedition to the Amundsen Sea was canceled and was made up for in 2017 on the 104th research trip.
- MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) is the name of the expedition to which the Polarstern set out on September 20, 2019. It will drift through the central Arctic frozen in the ice for a year . The aim is to collect data to understand the global climate system. A network of manned stations will be set up within a radius of 50 kilometers around the pole; the camps float on the ice with the ship. The project is coordinated from the Potsdam site of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI); The project, estimated at 60 million euros, is funded by polar research and other organizations around the world.
Accidents
- On March 2, 2008, the Bo 105 helicopter with the registration number D-HAWI of the research vessel Polarstern crashed near the Neumayer II research station in the Antarctic . Two people died and three were injured, some seriously. The reason for the crash was the whiteout phenomenon due to the contrastless surface of the ice shelf .
- On December 17, 2011, both on -board helicopters of the Polarstern type Bo 105 with the registration D-HLSZ and D-HANT crashed when they made a safety landing on the ice due to the weather. Two people were slightly injured and both helicopters were destroyed. The "conclusion" in the BFU accident report reads: "Both accidents are due to a loss of perception of the attitude in 'whiteout' conditions."
- Today the risks of operations in polar regions are limited by strict regulations on flight conditions.
Life on board
The ship is designed for 43 crew members and 55 scientists. The crew members are replaced every three months; the researchers are usually on board for four to six weeks, depending on the voyage. They come from different nations, the language on board is English. Two people are accommodated in a ten square meter cabin, which has a small bathroom.
For leisure, the ship is equipped with a lounge, called the Red Salon. Meals are eaten in the dining room, which is served three times a day. For sports activities, the Polarstern has a swimming pool and a fitness room, a table tennis table as well as a sauna and a solarium.
In the event of medical emergencies, operations can be carried out on board in a small operating theater, and the on-board doctor can be assisted by colleagues on shore via a screen. The Polarstern is equipped with a sick room and an isolation room.
An interactive web report of the training trip P105 from Las Palmas to Bremerhaven in April 2017 gives an impression of life on board.
New building plans
In November 2010, the Science Council recommended planning a new ice breaking research ship. In December 2014, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research published a shipyard tender under the project name “Polarstern II” for a multifunctional polar research ship that will eventually replace the Polarstern . The invitation to submit tenders has been running since the end of 2015. The tender was stopped in February 2020.
gallery
The Polarstern off Reykjavík, Iceland
At the pier of the British station Rothera, Antarctic Peninsula
Day course of the Polarstern in ram ice breaking in the Southern Ocean
"100 Years of German Antarctic Research" stamp pad from Deutsche Post from 2001. Gauß on the left, Polarstern on the right
reception
A hundred years after Ernest Shackleton's failed endurance expedition , the Polarstern set out again for Antarctica in 2016 ; the radio play In darkness let me dwell - songs from the darkness by the duo Merzouga ( Janko Hanushevsky , Eva Pöpplein), radio play of the month December 2016, deals with and interconnects the two events; the AWI's Oceanic Acoustics working group supported its production.
literature
- Gotthilf Hempel: The polar research and supply ship “Polarstern” . In: Geoscientific in our time , 1, 5, 1983, pp. 160–163, doi: 10.2312 / geoswissenschaften.1983.1.160 .
- HP Albert et al .: The German polar research and supply ship “Polarstern” . In: Hansa , 6/1983.
- Ingo Arndt, Claus-Peter Lieckfeld : Logbook Polarstern. Expedition into the Antarctic pack ice. GEO / Frederking & Thaler Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-89405-654-1 , hdl: /10013/epic.32810.d001 .
- Dieter Karl Fütterer, Eberhard Fahrbach: Polarstern - 25 years of research in the Arctic and Antarctic. Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-7688-2433-0 .
- Saad El Naggar, Eberhard Fahrbach, Eberhard Wagner: Handbook RV Polarstern - A guide for planning and conducting expeditions with RV Polarstern . Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research / Reederei F. Laeisz, Bremerhaven 2010.
- Horst Güntheroth: luxury liner of science . The most expensive research ship in the world, the German “Polarstern”, is now on its maiden voyage at the South Pole. In: Stern . No. 11 , March 10, 1983, pp. 202-204 .
- Orientation plan (PDF; 2.2 MB), Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research / Reederei F. Laeisz.
Web links
- The Polarstern on awi.de
- Handbook of RV Polarstern: ship history, technical data, general plan (PDF)
- Current position of the ship
- List of all trips made so far with links to the scientific trip reports
- Interactive web report about the research icebreaker Polarstern (April 2017)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Handbook of RV Polarstern, ship data, p. 8 .
- ↑ AWI overview page about Polarstern , accessed on September 21, 2015.
- ^ Resonator podcast of the Helmholtz Association : Life on Polarstern (episode 82, March 24, 2016)
- ^ Weekly reports from Polarstern. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 9, 2010 ; Retrieved November 27, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Calls to researchers in the Antarctic Amundsen Sea! Bayerischer Rundfunk , March 20, 2017, accessed on April 28, 2017 .
- ↑ Alfred Wegener Institute: "Blue Angel on a Long Journey" awi.de from September 25, 2019
- ↑ The research ship Polarstern. Federal Ministry of Education and Research, accessed on April 26, 2017.
- ↑ Polarstern Wiki: Zodiacs. Retrieved February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Polar mission: a second life in the eternal ice. Retrieved February 12, 2020 .
- ^ Stefan Thien: RV Polarstern. In: HeliService - The Highest Standards in Offshore Transport. Retrieved on February 12, 2020 (German).
- ^ Alfred Wegener Institute: ACOBAR - ACoustic Technology for OBserving the interior of the ARctic Ocean. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 25, 2013 ; Retrieved February 11, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Fertilize the sea for the sake of the climate? In: Hamburger Abendblatt. Retrieved February 8, 2009 .
- ↑ Winter in the eternal ice . In: Süddeutsche.de of October 27, 2012, accessed on October 27, 2012.
- ↑ Christoph Seidler: Research ship “Polarstern” has to break off expedition. Spiegel Online , January 7, 2015, accessed April 28, 2017 .
- ↑ Ralf Nestler: The “Polarstern” has to leave Antarctica early. Der Tagesspiegel , January 7, 2015, accessed on April 28, 2017 .
- ↑ Calls to researchers in the Antarctic Amundsen Sea! Bayerischer Rundfunk, March 20, 2017, accessed on April 28, 2017 .
- ↑ "Polarstern" starts big Arctic mission. Press release of the Federal Government October 17, 2018.
- ↑ Biggest Arctic expedition of all time started. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 20, 2019, accessed on September 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Roland Koch: Research Ship Adventure in the Ice - What climate researchers are planning to do with the Polarstern. helmholtz.de, February 17, 2017, accessed April 27, 2017 .
- ↑ ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 15,183th Aviation Safety Network, March 2, 2008 accessed May 31, 2015 .
- ↑ Investigation report. (PDF; 21 kB) Federal Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau , August 2009.
- ↑ ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 153,073th Aviation Safety Network, July 5th, 2013, accessed on 31 May 2015 .
- ↑ ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 153,074th Aviation Safety Network, July 5th, 2013, accessed on 31 May 2015 .
- ↑ Investigation report (PDF; 608 kB) Federal Aircraft Accident Investigation Agency, November 27, 2012.
- ↑ Helicopter operation - Polarstern - Wiki new - Confluence. Retrieved February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Helicopter operations on borad Polarstern - short information. Retrieved February 12, 2020 .
- ^ Sara Sundermann: Rush to the research ship "Polarstern" . In: Weser-Kurier, April 23, 2017, accessed on April 25, 2017.
- ^ Marie Heidenreich: The Polarstern is returning to Bremerhaven. In: Expedition blog of the training trip P105 . April 12, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2017 .
- ↑ Call for proposals for the successor to the Polarstern. Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 2016; accessed on February 14, 2017.
- ↑ Tender for new research vessel "Polarstern II" stopped - buten un within. Retrieved February 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Imke Wrage: The ship "Polarstern II" for the Alfred Wegener Institute is not built. Retrieved February 14, 2020 .
- ↑ In darkness let me dwell - songs from the darkness. , Deutschlandfunk , March 4, 2017.
