Exchange Of Arctic Research Crew Gets Delayed As Supply Ice Breaker Blocked By Unexpected “Dense Sea Ice”

Lately we’ve been hearing reports of how Arctic sea ice has (unexpectedly) reached normal levels this winter. This is a bit of good news which the media avoid mentioning.

But the resurgence of Arctic ice has hardly been good news for global warming alarmists, and especially for the 300 crew members of German high-tech research vessel Polarstern of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), now currently on expedition in the mid Arctic.

Exchange of Polarstern research vessel crew will have to sit tight as Russian supply ice breaker gets held up. Image:  Alfred Wegener Institute. 

Yesterday NDR German public broadcasting reported that it appears the Polarstern’s crew will have to sit tight for awhile longer because a Russian ice breaker for exchanging the crew has had too much difficulty breaking its way through the ice to the research vessel. The sea ice is thicker than anticipated.

The NDR reports: “There are problems with the Arctic expedition of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven. The crew on the research vessel ‘Polarstern’ have to stay on site longer than expected.”

“Dense ice”

The problem is that the Russian supply icebreaker became bogged in “the dense sea ice of the Arctic” and now “is making little progress”. The ice has been too thick for the Russian ice breaker to make its way as planned.

The Polarstern research vessel of the AWI MOSAiC expedition departed mainland Europe last September and has since lodged itself in the middle of the Arctic ice through the winter as part of an Arctic research expedition. It will return back to its home-port of Bremerhaven in early October of this year.

The “MOSAiC” expedition is one of the largest Arctic expeditions ever with scientists from 20 nations studying “the climate processes of the central Arctic”. The crew of 300 on board the Polarstern is supplied and exchanged at about every three months by “an international fleet of icebreakers, helicopters and aircraft,” Radio Bremen reported.

Thick ice caused breaker to run out of fuel

Just recently Russian supply ice breaker “Captain Dranitsyn” was headed over to carry out a scheduled “crew exchange” but ended up consuming too much fuel trying to break through the “up to 160 centimeters thick” sea ice, Radio Bremen reported. Now the supply icebreaker “no longer has enough fuel for the return trip because of the high energy consumption in the ice.”

There were “few open or thin spots,” one official explained.

“According to a spokesperson, the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven is now looking for solutions, and several options already prepared for such situations are being examined,” writes Radio Bremen.

The cost of the Polarstern MOSAiC expedition is 160 million euros.

16 responses to “Exchange Of Arctic Research Crew Gets Delayed As Supply Ice Breaker Blocked By Unexpected “Dense Sea Ice””

  1. Kurt in Switzerland

    Maybe Greta could come to the rescue! I understand that she has experience crossing the Atlantic in a “Carbon-free” vessel. I also hear that she has a surplus of hot air, which might come in handy in the midst of 1.60 m thick sea ice.

  2. John F. Hultquist

    If they run out of wine, expect a riot.

  3. RoHa

    This thicker ice is warm ice, caused by Man Made Global Warming.

  4. oebele bruinsma

    “The crew of 300 on board the Polarstern is supplied and exchanged at about every three months by “an international fleet of icebreakers, helicopters and aircraft,” Radio Bremen reported.”
    What a sizeable carbon foot print…

  5. Coeur de Lion

    I thought this experiment was to subsist for a year on own resources? That we have ‘crew changes’ is deeply disappointing. The ‘crew’ are non-scientists? How will the ‘crew changes’ affect the ‘carbon footprint’? And we haven’t yet reached the third-week-in-March max ice yet. I’m really looking forward to the report which will show how swiftly Arctic Ice is growing/diminishing.

  6. Lasse

    It does not matter.
    Polarstern is on its track out of the ice in a speed not anticipated by the researchers specialised in ice movements.
    Research when it is as best, proved being wrong!

    1. Lasse

      By the way, are they late updating ice cover area also?
      polarportal.dk/fileadmin/polarportal/sea/SICE_curve_extent_LA_DK_20200226.png

      Looks like 15 XX to me , not 14,5 XX

  7. bonbon

    Have I missed something ?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-powered_icebreaker
    See the list of russian nuclear powered icebreakers.

    Clearly Russia is not listening to the CO2, warm fuzzy feeling crowd.

    Question is, would one of these solve Polarstern’s problems?`

    Or, since Germany shuts down the worlds best reactors, is nuclear icebreaker the new “Unwort”?

    Imagine ZDF headlines :

    “…our best Arctic research crew rescued by nuclear powered Russian icebreaker”.
    There’s enough there to feed MSM fat for 2 weeks!

  8. Exchange Of Arctic Research Crew Gets Delayed As Supply Ice Breaker Blocked By Unexpected “Dense Sea Ice” — NoTricksZone - Climate- Science.press

    […] über Exchange Of Arctic Research Crew Gets Delayed As Supply Ice Breaker Blocked By Unexpected “Dense S… […]

  9. Petit_Barde

    A bunch of complete idiots who waste in the most useless and eco-harming way taxpayers money.

  10. drumphish

    https://www.awi.de/fileadmin/user_upload/MET/PolarsternCoursePlot/psobsedat.html

    At 88.5 latitude, they’re close to the center of the top of the globe.

    Daily temps of -24° C, some more, some less, no sunshine, the temp will remain constant, just have to make sure you stay warm.

    The Spring melt is three months away. You gotta wonder how they think they’re gonna get out of there, their return trip won’t be until next September when the ocean has less ice cover.

    What if there is more area of ice than normal, it’ll take more chopping to get out.

    It has to be Groundhog Day every day by this time.

    The crew wants out, to go home and get some sleep.

  11. Exchange Of Arctic Research Crew Gets Delayed As Supply Ice Breaker Blocked By Unexpected ‘Dense Sea Ice’ — - Climate- Science.press

    […] https://notrickszone.com/2020/02/26/exchange-of-arctic-research-crew-gets-delayed-as-supply-ice-brea… Exchange Of Arctic Research Crew Gets Delayed As Supply Ice Breaker Blocked By Unexpected “Dense Sea Ice” NoTricksZone: Not here to worship what i… / by P Gosselin / Lately we’ve been hearing reports of how Arctic sea ice has (unexpectedly) reached normal levels this winter. 10 weitere Wörter […]

  12. David Warland

    This will prove global warming is no myth, just wait and see.
     
    How many more ship of fools are going to get stuck in unanticipated ice ?

    Go to ice country to prove no ice, get stuck in ice, proof of global warming, ye gods.

  13. Arctic Research Crew’s Supply Ship Gets Sidelined By Dense Ice – Menopausal Mother Nature

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  14. Gerald Machnee

    These jokers do not get it.
    When it was done long ago the ship was there for 3 years with no resupply.

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