RV Polarstern

The Polarstern before Reykjavik

Nobis Krug GmbH in Rendsburg

Germanischer Lloyd

IMO no. 8013132

The Polar Star is an icebreaker ( German ice class ARC3 ) blank out research and supply ship. Owner of the ship is the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The Polar Star is from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research ( AWI) operated in Bremerhaven and in addition to the exploration of the polar seas to the supply of permanently manned research institutions in the Arctic ( Koldewey Station ) and Antarctica ( Neumayer Station III) employed. It continues the over 100 -year tradition of German Antarctic research, which was initiated with the first of the South Polar Expedition Ship Gauss 1901-1903. After her commissioning, she was the most advanced polar research vessel in the world. By 2017 they will be replaced for about 450 million euros by a successor ship.

History

Construction and commissioning

The ship has been developed from the end of 1978 on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research in a sub- contract from the Hamburg Ship Model Basin ( HSVA ) by the Hamburg engineering firm SCHIFFKO and prepared as a complete draft of the tender. Following a public tender for the body of the Polarstern on the HDW - HDW shipyard in German keel was laid on 22 September 1981 to Kiel. All details of the ship with equipment and furnishings including scientific equipment and the completion of the ship with equipment according to the SCHIFFKO design was planned on the Nobiskrug shipyard in Rendsburg and on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research in the early 1980s in close coordination with planned the SCHIFFKO and the ZSM ( central offices of the federal government for ships and machinery) and carried out. For the Eisbrechtechnik with the associated ship shape the HSVA responsible. On 9 December 1982, she was finally put into service and has since in more than 50 expeditions (as of November 2010 ) in the Arctic and Antarctica collected important data for research and science.

Use

Since its launch in 1982, Polarstern expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic is started with internationally mixed groups of researchers, sometimes in combination with other research vessels such as the " USCGC Healy ," the research icebreaker of the U.S. Coast Guard Coast Guard or the Swedish research icebreaker " Oden ".

Independently of the specific experiments and research cruises the Polarstern also serves as a weather station. In the northern hemisphere there is a dense network of weather stations on the mainland, which provide data for weather models regularly. On the seas, meteorologists, however, are dependent on data from ships. For this purpose, every day when the Pole Star is traveling start weather balloons, provide the appropriate information, such as air pressure, wind speed and temperature.

• On the first Arctic expedition in 1983, the researchers of the polar star in the Marginal Ice Zone Experiment ( MIZEX ) involved, as well as ozeonographisch - biological studies have conducted west of Spitsbergen and taken geological samples in the Greenland Sea and in the Lofoten Islands.
• In 1986, the Polar Star, the Winter Weddell Sea Project. But they wintered from May 6 to December 14, 1986 at the area of the Weddell Sea, without being however, include the drift. However, this happened in December 1990, involuntarily, as the Polarstern on its way to Antarctica in the ice of the Weddell Sea was stuck.
• The Polar Star was with the Swedish icebreaker Oden, the first conventionally powered ship that the North Pole ( 7 September 1991) reached. Previously this was only nuclear-powered icebreakers and submarines succeeded.
• 1995 and 2001 two expeditions to study the Eltanin impact structure have been made.
• In January 1999, the Polarstern from their 16th Antarctic expedition alongside other research to recover the time unmanned Filchner station that was on the broken off from the Filchner - Ronne Ice Shelf Iceberg A-38. Here, about 120 tons of material station and about 50 tons of equipment such as groomers and slide were recorded in total.
• End of 2000, the Polar Star was involved in the EisenEx experiment. The researchers studied how a fertilization effect of the sea with iron sulfate on the growth of plankton and what influences this has on the carbon balance of the atmosphere. The nutrient intake had a plankton bloom result, generated a multiple of biomass than in unfertilized comparison areas.
• In the Antarctic early summer of 2004 /05 put the Polarstern on to an ice floe and drifted two months with this through the Weddell Sea. As part of the ISPOL experiment ( Ice Station Polarstern ), the scientists used the ice floe as a giant open-air laboratory and examined the local effects of the sea, the ice and the atmosphere on global events.
• In October 2005, the Polarstern from their 23 Antarctic expedition and returned only in May 2007 after 19 months stay back to Bremerhaven. This was the third time that the polar star over a year has been long in Antarctica go.
• In the summer of 2008, the Polaris the North Pole orbited the first research ship worldwide. The trip lasted from 12 August to 17 October 2008. Goal was the exploration of the Alpha - Mendeleyev Ridge and the Chuckchi Plateau.
• On January 7, 2009, the ship ran out to the controversial expedition LOHAFEX from the port of Cape Town. A similar fertilization experiment has already taken place in 2004.
• Since the late 90s, there are MAX - DOAS measurements on board for the determination of trace gases at the Ruprecht -Karls- University of Heidelberg.
• End of October 2012 started from Bremerhaven another Antarctic expedition. In the course of the estimated one and a half year journey divided into ten individual drive sections, the first time the winter is planned in the South Pole.

Accidents

• In March 2008, crashed in Antarctica near the research station Neumayer II a Bo 105 helicopters from the research vessel Polarstern from. Two people died and three were injured, some seriously. Cause of the crash was the whiteout phenomenon due to the contrasting features ice shelf surface.
• In December 2011, again crashed two helicopters aboard the "Polar Star " of type Bo 105, as they weather conditions a precautionary landing on the ice conducted. Two people were slightly injured, destroyed both helicopters.

Ship Technology

As a double-walled icebreaker Polarstern can be used to temperatures of -50 ° C. With the four engines with a total output of 14.7 MW can be traveled at a speed of about 5 knots up to 1.5 m thick ice floes. Thicker ice may be due to the massive steel armor broken by ramming. The size of the vessel arises from the many demands that are placed on the Polaris. Firstly, it needs to supply the research stations and a possible wintering in the ice provide plenty of storage and closet space and on the other, for the research of up to 70 scientists relevant laboratories and workrooms.

From 1982 to 1996 was the polar fox dinghy on board, was taken because of difficulties in handling even with only a slight swell in 1996 by board.

Research institutions

The Polaris is about 320 days per year at sea and usually travels in the southern summer months of November to March, the Antarctic and the northern summer the Arctic.

For scientific work of geology, meteorology, biology, geophysics, glaciology, oceanography and chemistry are nine laboratories are available. At and below deck other laboratory containers can be stowed in order to make the various research tasks locally.

With the aid of winches eight samples can be obtained from a depth of up to 10,000 m. Specific gravity cores can take sediment samples up to 150 m in length. Research units can also be discharged with the 15- ton crane overboard into the water or on the ice. The boom has a reach of 24 meters and can be lowered to the height of the water surface. Another crane on the foredeck can lift even heavier equipment and supplies up to 25 tons.

About a pivoting A-frame at the stern networks or devices can be towed behind the ship.

In order to carry out further tests on the samples and live marine animals, the Polarstern also has aquariums and three refrigerators that cool with temperatures of -32 ° C to 5 ° C.

The working deck at the stern is heated, so that at temperatures below freezing, the surfaces can be kept free of ice for safe working.

For reconnaissance missions over ice two helicopters of the type BO 105 CBS 4 can be used for extracting a landing platform and hangar are provided on the rear. Below deck storage areas are for containers and snow vehicles that can be set with the help of a crane at the ice edge.

As one of the few ships Polar Star also has a device for remote ROV Victor 6000 from France. Underwater gliders are also part of the scientific equipment.

New building plans

In November 2010, recommended that the Scientific Council to bring the German Polar and Marine scientists from 2016, a new icebreaker research vessel in use. The new building will replace the medium term, the North Star. However, the Polar Star is to be operated for a few years in parallel with the finished successor. Her follow-up project of the Polar Star is being driven by the Alfred Wegener Institute. The cost of the new vessel is estimated at 450 million euros. A concept envisages a European icebreaker, which is planned under the name Aurora Borealis.

Gallery

In the Atka Bay, Antarctica 2002 logo for the Year of Earth Sciences

At the feeder of the British Rothera Station, Antarctic Peninsula

Daily rate of Polarstern during Rammeisbrechen in the Southern Ocean

Stamp block "100 Years of German Antarktisfoschung " Deutsche Post AG from 2001. Gauss links, right the Polarstern

Bow of the ship model in the AWI

Stern of the ship model in the AWI