The IcePod

In the new episode of The IcePod, we meet with Karin Strand, Vice President of Expeditions of Hurtigruten, a Norwegian coastal ferry service and cruise line that offers expeditions to Antarctica. When Karin Strand began studying law in the late 1990s, she had no idea where life would take her. It all started with a student job in the summer; here she cleaned cabins aboard the ships of the traditional Norwegian ferry service that carries people from Bergen to Kirkenes in northern Norway. "Little did I know by the time", how much nature would become her profession. "During breaks at sea, I used to go out on deck and look at the coastline," she says. After graduating from law school, she decided to leave law behind and work for Hurtigruten on their ships instead. At the time, Hurtigruten had begun operations on the Chilean coast and in Antarctica which Karin was able to join as a purser to take care of passengers. She remembers well her first glimpse of Antarctica: while she expected it to basically be a copy of what she knew from the Norwegian coast, she quickly realized that Antarctica was "way bigger than myself". She has returned to Antarctica every year since, with the exception of last season when Hurtigruten had to temporarily suspend service due to COVID-19. When Hurtigruten established an outdoor program, Karin was offered the opportunity to join the Antarctic cruises as an expedition leader. Being an expedition leader requires three things: a good eye for logisticts, curiosity and passion. "This is much more than a job, it's a lifestyle", Karin explains. Today, as the Vice President of Expeditions, Karin is responsible for a fleet of six ships in Antarctica and the Arctic, including onshore expeditions and the onboard educational program. The latter has grown significantly over the years; Hurtigruten not only conducts Citizen Science projects, but offers scientists the opportunity to collect data during cruises. In her role, Karin is heavily involved into the planning the expedition itinerary. The team onboard uses several sources to check weather and sea-ice forecast, including windy.com (https://www.windy.com) and the Norwegian weather forecast from yr.no (https://www.yr.no). To make sure, we stay safe, "we usually go with the worst-case scenario", Karin explains. Better fog and wind forecasts would be very useful, and if there were a wish list, Karin would look for a combined product where information on sea ice, wind and ocean currents would be available from a single source, "because those are the elements that would stop us on our way.”

In this episode of The IcePod, we talk to Nina Gallo about her work as a tour guide in Antarctica and how she gets the most out for her Antarctica-loving passengers, even when the weather is unstable. Nina came to Antarctica about five years ago when she applied for a tour guide position in Antarctica. "Australia has a strong connection to Antarctica, and I heard about it when I was a kid in school," says the Australian writer and photographer. What she likes best about the Antarctic landscape is that it is "always surprising". After each of her trips south, you'd think Nina would be exhausted from a 24-hour job lasting several weeks, but no, she's always excited to just turn around and go back. Her work as a guide consists, on the one hand, briefing and preparing the passengers who have boarded in Ushuaia, Argentina, and are now finally entering Antarctica. On the other hand, she explores the untouched nature of the southernmost continent in Zodiacs with the passengers. In addition to the specialist knowledge she has acquired in various training courses, her intuition is important for exploring the area and assessing possible risks and dangers at an early stage.Because the weather is often difficult to predict, her expedition team uses some popular tools like https://www.windy.com/ and https://www.zygrib.org/ to plan their trips to the landing sites. "We go with whatever Antarctica has to offer" to make the trip as enjoyable as possible for passengers. "It doesn't matter what the weather is like in Antarctica, there is always something magical to see", says Nina.   Find more about Nina Gallo at https://ninagallo.squarespace.com/The episode with music is played at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/ (Bremerhaven) on Saturday, 4 December 2021, 1–3 pm UTC (2–4 pm CET). For any question, send and email to polarprediction@gmail.com And here's the playlist from Nina: - Sunrise - Pillows – Alfa Mist, Emmavie - Wise Women – Moonchild - Nakamarra – Hiatus Kaiyote - Under Control – The Internet - Cool Change – Little River Band - The Storm – Boy & Bear - Sunset (Amber Navran Remix) – Ashley Chanel, Amber Navran The IcePod is produced by the International Coordination Office of the Polar Prediction Project, a project initiated by the World Meteorological Organization to improve weather and sea ice forecasting in the polar regions. For any question or feedback, please contact polarprediction@gmail.com.

In the first episode of The IcePod, season 2, we talk to Lasse Rabenstein and Panagiotis Kountouris. They run the start-up Drift+Noise Polar Services, which could potentially become the ‘one-stop solution for ice information'.  "If I were the captain of a fishing vessel sailing north of Svalbard..." – In this episode, Lasse and Panos tell us about their start-up company, which primarily aims to support shipping activities in polar regions fjnd a safe path through the ice. To that end, they are developing products such as an app that integrates various information, such as satellite data and ice-drift forecasts, to provide users with an easy-to-use solution, "so that the data speaks to you", Panos says. While a forecast is always subject to uncertainty, users need a truly accurate forecast; for them "the perfect product is a perfect forecast", he adds. However, "on a ship in the Arctic, you can still feel like you're back in the 1990s", says Lasse – low bandwidth is one of the issues Drift+Noise is trying to solve with its service.  As an intermediate provider that passes information from data providers to end users, there is a need to take care of customers – communication and user feedback are key to further improving the company's products. "And… it's really important to educate people by showing them what the innovations are", the company partners add. "Especially the new generations of captains and ice pilots will appreciate getting any information they need to run their operations." Here's the playlist from Lasse:  - Der Traum ist aus - Ton Steine Scherben - Child in Time - Deep Purple - Alles muss man selber machen lassen - Deichkind  - Nordisch by Nature - Fettes Brot - Verdächtig - Systemabsturz - Feed Your Head - Kalkbrenner The IcePod is produced by the International Coordination Office of the Polar Prediction Project, a project initiated by the World Meteorological Organization to improve weather and sea ice forecasting in the polar regions. For any question or feedback, please contact polarprediction@gmail.com.

Surprise, surprise! After the final episode with Matt Shupe, we have another one for you. In this German edition of The IcePod, we talk to Captain Thomas Wunderlich who took over the command of the German research icebreaker RV Polarstern for leg 4 and 5 of the MOSAiC expedition in June 2020.  Thomas Wunderlich is one of currently three captains on board Polarstern; together with his colleague Captain Stefan Schwarze he made sure that scientists could carry out their work during the one-year drifting MOSAiC ice camp in the central Arctic. How to become the captain of the 39 year-old Lady Polarstern, and what is the role of a captain when the ship is not actively moving but just drifting through sea-ice floes? Not only we learn about the bunch of items Thomas Wunderlich always takes with him aboard when leaving for the north or south (we only mention 'night socks' here), but also we hear about how to pursue a career at sea, about the different marine officer grades and on the general aspects of seafaring in Germany and around the world.   'There are the dead, there are the living, and there are sailors', Thomas Wunderlich quotes an unknown source; his life is divided into six months at sea and six months at home each year, both being intensive times of living, and yes, Thomas Wunderlich also likes to be on land, using his spare time for work in the garden or to explore the beautiful Spreewald area south of Berlin, which is home for Captain Wunderlich.  Wunderlich tells us about the moment, many years ago, when for the first time he had heard that something called the MOSAiC expedition was discussed. And he revisits with us the precious moment when he met his Captain colleague Stefan Schwarze somewhere at the sea-ice edge in June last year. Yes, he can't deny, they gave each other a hug when he took over the command after leg 3. After all, in times when it is uncertain whether a MOSAiC expedition can continue even under pandemic circumstances, it was also his endorsement to expedition lead Markus Rex to keep on going, thanks to the brilliant logistic efforts that made seemingly impossible things possible.  There is one common goal at a research vessel, which is making the scientists happy by enabling them to do their research; for which both parties need to be treated overly respectfully on board, and this has worked out very well for Thomas Wunderlich's leg 4 and 5 of MOSAiC. "While we, the captain and crew, can take water samples, we cannot analyze them. But at the same time, if there wasn't us, the ship would still sit in Bremerhaven." In October 2020, after one year in the ice, Thomas Wunderlich maneuvered RV Polarstern back home to Bremerhaven. The moment has been hilarious and very emotional when the vessel entered port on a sunny early October morning, accompanied by the many welcome-honking escort boats and happy-waving people at the quay. If you miss the music, find Thomas Wunderlich's playlist on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0WL49FCRP76g5QR2cipqGe For updates and other materials, check also our website https://theicepodcast.home.blog/ Music from https://filmmusic.io "Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit: Lianna Nixon Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto

What do Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev have to do with the Polar Prediction Project? In the very last episode of The IcePod, things get turned upside down. When Kirstin Werner, former head of the PPP Coordination Office, moved on last fall, someone got the idea to grill her about her work with the Polar Prediction community before she left. Here, Kirstin talks about her experiences with the Year of Polar Prediction, but also gives insights into her background in Arctic research, her previous work as a journalist, and takes us back to that moment in her childhood when she saw Ronald Reagan and Michael Gorbatshev on TV and realized that Iceland might be an interesting spot for her to explore... This time, Lorraine Youds, Scientific Officer for WMO's World Weather Research Program, asks the questions. For this and all previous episodes of The IcePod go to e.g. Spotify, Apple Podcast, Castbox (no sign-up needed) or on our website theicepodcast.home.blog The IcePod is produced by the International Coordination Office of the Polar Prediction Project, a project initiated by the World Meteorological Organization to improve weather and sea ice forecasting in the polar regions. For any question or feedback, please contact polarprediction@gmail.com. Photo: Sina Loeschke/Alfred Wegener Institute

Finally, it's there! As promised earlier, the short version of our The IcePod interview with Captain Thomas Wunderlich in English language is now available. Thomas Wunderlich took over the command of the German research icebreaker RV Polarstern for leg 4 and 5 of the MOSAiC expedition in June 2020. Thomas Wunderlich is one of currently three captains on board Polarstern; together with his colleague Captain Stefan Schwarze he made sure that scientists could carry out their work during the one-year drifting MOSAiC ice camp in the central Arctic. In this special edition of The IcePod, we we hear about how to pursue a career at sea, how to become the captain of the 39 year-old Lady Polarstern, and what is the role of a captain when the ship is not actively moving but just drifting through sea-ice floes. Wunderlich recalls the precious moment when he met his Captain colleague Stefan Schwarze somewhere at the sea-ice edge in June 2020 to take over the command of Polarstern out on the MOSAiC expedition to study the Arctic for a full year. He tells us about the uncertainty of the expedition under pandemic circumstances and about the good spirit kept on board to make sure the scientists can happily carry out their research. In October 2020, after one year in the ice, Thomas Wunderlich maneuvered RV Polarstern back home to Bremerhaven. The moment has been hilarious and very emotional when the vessel entered port on a sunny early October morning, accompanied by the many welcome-honking escort boats and happy-waving people at the quay. For the full episode with Captain Thomas Wunderlich in German language and all previous IcePod episodes go to e.g. Spotify, Apple Podcast, Castbox (no sign-up needed) or on our website theicepodcast.home.blog The IcePod is produced by the International Coordination Office of the Polar Prediction Project, a project initiated by the World Meteorological Organization to improve weather and sea ice forecasting in the polar regions. For any question or feedback, please contact polarprediction@gmail.com.

In the first season, Sara Pasqualetto and Kirstin Werner of the International Polar Prediction Coordination Office invited participants from the MOSAiC expedition who spent a year drifting through Arctic sea ice on the German research icebreaker RV Polarstern. Guests on the podcast were able to share details from the MOSAiC expedition about their scientific work on the ice, as well as about life on board, insights that would otherwise have been left untold. The episodes were broadcast on the community radio station Radio Weser TV in Bremen and Bremerhaven and are still available on Spotify and other podcast platforms. In the second season of The IcePod, Kirstin Werner continues to invite podcast guests to bring along their favorite songs and get to know the guests a little better that way. In particular, the second season is about learning more about a range of activities in the Arctic and Antarctic that require good forecasts of environmental conditions. At high latitudes, reliable weather and sea ice forecasts are key to safe operations. However, data on weather and sea ice at the poles are still relatively sparse because these areas are difficult to access. As a result, accurate forecasts are still lacking in these regions. In Season 2 of The IcePod, Kirstin talks to Drift+Noise Polar Services, a start-up that turns forecast data into applied services. You'll also hear from Hurtigruten, a major coastal ferry service and cruise company in Norway, an Antarctic expedition leader, and a helicopter pilot working on Polarstern. Stay tuned and watch out for the next episodes of The IcePod. The IcePod is produced by the International Coordination Office of the Polar Prediction Project, a project initiated by the World Meteorological Organization to improve weather and sea ice forecasting in the polar regions. For any question or feedback, please contact polarprediction@gmail.com.

Here's the final episode of The IcePod's season 1.  It's a pretty special one because we got to meet one of the highest-ranked people of MOSAiC – it's Matt Shupe. Matt has been the co-lead of the expedition and stayed onboard Polarstern for the first, the dark one, and the fourth, the light leg of the one-year expedition. Matt really is a cloud person; he has been working on his sweet spot of research, the Arctic mixed-phase clouds, since basically forever. As a PhD student, he has already been involved into the Arctic drifting expedition SHEBA  in 1997, and could thus bring on his experience camping on the ice into the new project. After his return from the Arctic, he always wanted to go back to better understand what's going on there in terms of atmosphere/sea-ice interactions. When he met the German physicist Klaus Dethloff who by the time worked at the Alfred Wegener Institute, they realized they'd have similar dreams on an Arctic overwintering campaign.  It took them quite some years and efforts to champion on these paired ideas, but eventually they got more people convinced and the German research vessel Polarstern on board. In retrospect, Matt summarizes the expedition like this: "My expectations were not necessarily the plan of the Arctic, but the Arctic came up and said 'Hey, this is what I am right now'."  From COVID-19 to logistical issues, not to mention the fast drift of the ice floe, the MOSAiC expedition was sometimes not as they had pictured. But great expectations can only be topped by the unexpected reality, which turned out to be amazing, not only due to the various observations during polar night and day, but also to the team spirit, the human relationships and particularly the Italian card game connection that built over time on an Arctic island in the sun. What are Matt's plans for the future? While looking at the "old stuff" may be in "some ways less sexy", it's a necessary step to pave the way to the next big thing of the future of Arctic research, which Matt is confident on is in great hands. If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Matt created for you on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1SfJzVTcH6aF4lkhW6zNAAIf you want to listen to the full episode with music, listen to Radio Weser.TV on the first Saturday each month 12–2 pm UTC at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/, or check back with us at polarprediction@gmail.comFor updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit:  MOSAiC consortium

Number Eleven! It's the ocean episode. As we finally enter the last leg of the MOSAiC expedition, we get to talk to Zoe Koenig who is an Arctic physical oceanographer at the University of Bergen and the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø. Zoe was leading team Ocean during leg 5 which clearly differed from the previous ones as the original MOSAiC ice floe had disintegrated and Polarstern now was looking for a new home. Zoe always had a close relation to the ocean as she grew up in Brittany and spent her childhood's vacation sailing with the family off the French coasts. So the ocean has always been her special place of freedom, and even for some people it is just a blue out of the blue, she will always find a different shade of blue.  The white is adding to the blue in the Arctic where the sea ice cover calms down the ocean moving; it's the quietness that fascinates Zoe. This wasn't Zoe's first time drifting in the Arctic – during her PhD, she joined the Norwegian Young Sea Ice Experiment N-ICE on board the vessel Lance. And so she brought all her experience on how to measure the speed of the ocean, its temperature, and how salty it is into MOSAiC. Team Ocean was a small but busy team. To make sure no one gets bored by taking the same measurements over and over, Zoe introduced a rotating system so that everyone could run the different instruments. While they only built a light version of the previous ice camp during the last leg, Zoe and her team still had to work hard to maintain from refreezing the various holes in the ice to plunge the ocean instruments. Polarstern had a shortage of cheese and chocolate during the last part of the cruise but Zoe and her team made it back healthy and in time to be heartily welcomed in Bremerhaven in October last year. But, sadly, the pandemic was still ongoing and it felt odd to come back to a world of people hidden behind masks and with no hugs. If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Zoe created for you on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/66D1gefJOv2sTeRUUc7oQC?si=XamqE-pPSBCPTk-HyxNprwIf you want to listen to the full episode with music, listen to Radio Weser.TV on the first Saturday each month 12–2 pm UTC at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/, or check back with us at polarprediction@gmail.comFor updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit:  Lianna Nixon

For the tenth episode of The IcePod, we jump from the scientific part to the logistical aspects of the expedition. To carry out research in the living room of the polar bears requires people who take care of keeping everybody safe. "The binoculars are my weapons", says Laura Schmidt, member of the Safety and Logistics Team during MOSAiC leg 4. Laura grew up in the alpine environment of Southern Germany which paved the way into the Arctic easily.  Studying geography was a way to merge her passion for outdoor activities with scientific curiosity. And, Greenland was her first love – during her Master's degree she joined an excursion to the frozen super island and always wanted to come back. This is what she did. As a self-employed, she has been guiding tourists through the extreme Greenlandic nature home to the Inuits. "In Greenland, everything is much different. Here,  nature tells you what to do." One has to be able to read and feel the landscape in order to enjoy and get home safely and to deal with a pretty tough enemy when exploring Arctic environments: fog.Safety was also the keyword for Laura's role onboard Polarstern. The polar bear watch was amongst a number of responsibilities to make sure scientists and crew could carry on with their jobs. But shooting a polar bear would only be the very last option she really had. There are a lot of other things that come first, such as retreating or using a flaring gun, explains Laura in the episode: "I would never want to be the person who shoots a polar bear." It would be normal to wonder if Laura ever feels afraid, when working in such an extreme environment. But for her, fear is part of the job, and in the right doses, it is actually a key aspect to make her aware of her surroundings and keep her alert to perceive changes and dangers around her.As part of a close team of researchers and professionals sharing the same home for three months, Laura had the opportunity to occasionally step out of her logistics role and contribute to other activities in the MOSAiC camp. That's how she got to feel being part of the atmosphere team, launching weather balloons and sending messages to the blue Arctic skies.If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Laura created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6KsIAB0aQx14AQYgfnmXFd?si=dRCFn3LsQW6MA3qUndVMIwIf you want to listen to the full episode with music, listen to Radio Weser.TV on the first Saturday each month 12–2 pm UTC at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/, or check back with us at polarprediction@gmail.comFor updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit:  Lianna Nixon

If anybody has an idea of the uncountable number of data points retrieved during the MOSAiC one-year ice drift, it can only be Antonia Immerz. Antonia is the data manager of MOSAiC, she has joined leg 1 and leg 4 onboard Polarstern, and she is one of the few lucky ones (or should we rather call her 'brave'?) who took a bath in an Arctic melt pond. In this ninth episode of The IcePod, we slightly change perspective by looking at MOSAiC from a data point of view. Since 2018, Antonia has been coordinating the data activities and infrastructure to support the Arctic ice drift at the Alfred Wegener Institute. By taking on this role, it came together very well for Antonia who had spent her childhood snorkeling at the tropical beaches of Papua New Guinea. With Antonia, we uncover the perfect career development for a data scientist involved in such a big project like MOSAiC. Following her childhood dreams for the marine world, Antonia ended up just in the perfect place to combine her technical skills with her fascination for the ocean. Now, the data is where the magic happens. 200 terra bytes of data, about 15,000 actions to retrieve data, and Antonia knows there is much more data available from the comprehensive central Arctic study that came to an end this past October. For her and the data team, the work even reaches a new level, now that everybody is interested in analyzing the data. All success relies on the human factor, and communication is key to make it work – these are some of the lessons learned for Antonia to efficiently support MOSAiC members working with the data. If you listen carefully, Antonia even whistle-blows some (not-so-secret) tricks on how to potentially get access to data, even if you haven't been involved in the project earlier. Leg 4 was also called the hugging leg – it probably was the only place on Earth where one hundred people were still allowed to have physical contact while the rest of us, half-face covered by masks, made a huge effort to smile-with-eyes at the supermarket's cashier or the post office lady. In the meantime, they had a good time onboard Polarstern during 'Art & Wine' nights, and acting, knitting,  wood carving, or jam sessions. As a special treat of this IcePod episode, you will get to hear the MOSAiC song composed by Matt Boyer, Ingo Schuffenhauer und Felix Linhardt played during the last CTD cast of leg 4. Antonia was thus lucky enough to celebrate her birthday in the Arctic with great music and a party hosting around one hundred people – seeking some harmony, peace, and love in the time of Corona. If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Antonia created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2xtaHREvya1Bt2hD4BB9W2?si=eyc9YUiqTpWqySsREty6lQ If you want to listen to the full episode with music, listen to Radio Weser.TV on the first Saturday each month 12–2 pm UTC at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/, or check back with us at polarprediction@gmail.comFor updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/MOSAiC Mixdown: mini-podcasts from the Arctic by Sam Cornishhttps://open.spotify.com/show/4WSd4ZSXBMZ3TLH1Og90Rc?si=GDbWg4emT36tbkRSAjvD6AThe IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from 

In episode eight of the IcePod, we get to hear back from one of our previous guests – Stefanie Arndt who already spoke with us before leaving for the Arctic (Bonus Episode One). After 145 days away from her home in Bremerhaven, she tells us all about MOSAiC expedition leg 3. Stefanie Arndt is a sea-ice scientist at the German Alfred Wegener Institute, and she has a special sense of snow. While Antarctic snow has been her first love, this time Steffi ventured northern fields and flirted with Arctic snowflakes. After she managed to survive the shortage of muesli brought from her home just at the end of the transit on board the Russian support icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn that brought leg 3 to the ice camp during the return of sun, Steffi led Team Ice during a challenging time: Not only it was the coldest leg of MOSAiC but there was lots of uncertainty due to very dynamic ice conditions. In addition, the leg got extended because of the pandemic that let no aircraft leaving from Svalbard for the planned exchange with the next leg. But Steffi and her team adapted well to the altered circumstances, studying spring conditions much longer into the season than expected –  as the days became longer the sea ice energy and ice albedo changed and eventually the MOSAiC ice floe became a mosaic of floes…What to do when something's becoming very urgent on the ice? Steffi gives some yet unknown insights to the logistic challenges of MOSAiC. Or did you already know that pee bottles were an item due to the no-pee policy for MOSAiC field work? Even polar scientists are not immune to Arctic temperatures so one has to find a strategy for sampling snow at -40°C. MOSAiC's Smilla had a pretty elaborate way using warming pads and two layers of warm gloves under her pair of plastic gloves to not contaminate the snow. Another way to keep yourself warm is to "walk five hundred miles" across the ice ridges. Luckily, there was always hot tea when returning from a long day out on the camp to a warm and cosy home called Polarstern. While Corona was affecting life on land, Steffi and the team of leg 3 had still chance to collect hugs before leaving the ice and go back home. Something she could draw on for the months to come... If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Steffi created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2qnVuJVfblT9MjBPg2rhyB?si=e-OjEPiPQeKMaGSMaBhO_AIf you want to listen to the full episode with music, listen to Radio Weser.TV on the first Saturday each month 12–2 pm UTC at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/, or check back with us at polarprediction@gmail.comFor updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/MOSAiC Mixdown: mini-podcasts from the Arctic by Sam Cornishhttps://open.spotify.com/show/4WSd4ZSXBMZ3TLH1Og90Rc?si=GDbWg4emT36tbkRSAjvD6AThe IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) CC BY (

Have you managed to make your hobby a profession? Everybody tries – Robert Hausen succeeded. For the seventh episode of The IcePod, we met with Robert Hausen who works as a forecaster for the German Weather Service (DWD).  He joined leg 3 of the MOSAiC expedition. Since Robert was a kid, he always waited for the snow to fall and grew up wondering about all kinds of weather phenomena. And this is where he ended up: Polarstern. MOSAiC has been his first Arctic cruise while Robert usually sails the Antarctic seas. This actually qualified him to take part in the coldest leg that MOSAiC could offer its participants. Part of his job aboard Polarstern was to inform people every day at 8 am about how the weather will be like that day. For that, Robert had to look at different weather forecasts and choose the one that fits the best to ... well, we're not telling you but go listen to the episode!Eventually, he was rewarded with a helicopter flight across the Arctic sea ice. This might have also consoled him for not being able to be back in Germany for his daughter's birthday end of April – leg 3 of MOSAiC was also the longest leg due to the rearrangements caused by the Corona pandemic. Another highlight for him was the crusted lamb that was served to the science team and crew on Easter Sunday. With Robert, we debunk some weather myths: Sheepy clouds don't actually bring rain, and red skies are not always foreteller of good weather. If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Robert created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2oioLmjvubF0LP3fIJFEit?si=jKykmGMmTFmKuJwc0yUWbwIf you want to listen to the full episode with music, listen to Radio Weser.TV on the first Saturday each month 12–2 pm UTC at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/, or check back with us at polarprediction@gmail.comFor updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/MOSAiC Mixdown: mini-podcasts from the Arctic by Sam Cornishhttps://open.spotify.com/show/4WSd4ZSXBMZ3TLH1Og90Rc?si=GDbWg4emT36tbkRSAjvD6AThe IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit: Christian Rohleder (German Weather Service/DWD)

The IcePod goes live and Antarctic! For our first live episode that we broadcasted during the APECS workshop "Antarctic Science: Global connections", we met with the Australian weather observer and Ph.D. candidate Vicki Heinrich. Well, actually, it wasn't only Vicki but we had another special guest: Vickie's pet cat sneaking around.  For more than ten years, Vicki has been a regular in the Antarctic to look at the clouds and play with balloons, all courtesy of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). To be trained on the ten types of clouds, she found this opportunity once in a newspaper, and it saved her from the mining industry. To get paid to stay twelve months at a weather station in Antarctica still feels extraordinary to her – as are the beauty of the Antarctic icescape and the many friendships she has built along the way, both with colleagues and penguin colonies. So why did Vicki then move into psychology? In 2019, she started her Ph.D. thesis with the project "Use of Weather and Climate Information: Risk perception and decision-making in the Antarctic" in order to learn more about how people use weather information to make their daily decisions. To get to know the other side – the user's perspective – is clearly an add-on to her career, and to us as her project got YOPP-endorsed. It turns out – as a preliminary result – everybody wants to know about the wind.For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/If you want to know more about the Association for Polar Early Career Scientist check the APECS website at https://apecs.is/More about the APECS workshop "Antarctic Science: Global connections" can be found at https://www.apecs.is/events-archive/390-scar-2020-workshop.html?layout=*Read about Vicki's project at https://www.facebook.com/UWCIAntarctica or at the YOPP-endorsement projects overview https://apps3.awi.de/YPP/The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit: Peter Hargreaves

For the sixth episode, the IcePod went overseas where we connected with Taneil Uttal in Boulder, Colorado. Taneil is a meteorologist at NOAA, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. To join the second leg of MOSAiC, Taneil didn't have to do anything but hire Matt Shupe – MOSAiC's co-lead – many years ago. How smart it sometimes can be to hire young people! She and Anja Sommerfeld from the fifth episode of The IcePod were the female atmospheric force during the darkest hours of the MOSAiC sea-ice drift. As the leader of the Atmospheric Team, Taneil felt it was her main job to make everybody else's job easy. As she was standing on an ice floe in the middle of Arctic nowhere in darkness, hearing the same humming noise of the atmospheric surface flux station she once heard in hot-summer Colorado made her feel they had built a space shuttle that landed on another planet. Leg 2 being the only fully sun-free period of the expedition, it provided Taneil with the best opportunities to observe the most extreme conditions in the Arctic, and to measure all the 'zeros' during darkness. Science makes just one (fulfilling) part of a scientist; there is more, and much more to Taneil. Spending the morning hours in Polarstern's red salon, Taneil volunteered for the leg 2 entry on the ship's guestbook – the whole lot of her impressions from the central Arctic she pieced together into a colourful vibrant drawing. If you're getting curious now (and you should!) check out the next PolarPredictNews newsletter.As a senior scientist, Taneil is now very much looking forward to retire, "to be a scientist" as she says. For the remainder at NOAA, she aims to "make herself obsolete in order to build a team of people" that are going to continue her work. If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Taneil created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4mESv4DB7h275C3K7Qvwdm?si=J17-hpThRJOBrr044m5xOAIf you want to listen to the full episode with music, listen to Radio Weser.TV on the first Saturday each month 12–2 pm UTC at https://www.medialabnord.de/radio-livestream/, or check back with us at polarprediction@gmail.comFor updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63AMOSAiC Mixdown: mini-podcasts from the Arctic by Sam Cornishhttps://open.spotify.com/show/4WSd4ZSXBMZ3TLH1Og90Rc?si=GDbWg4emT36tbkRSAjvD6AThe IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit: Michael Gallagher (NOAA)

Here is the scary episode of the IcePod. In the fifth full episode of the IcePod, we talk to Anja Sommerfeld, atmospheric scientist and project manager of MOSAiC. During Leg 2 onboard Polarstern, however, Anja had an additional role to fill: In the murderer game she happens to pick the 'wrong' ticket but brilliantly fulfilled her job as a murderer. Nobody ever suspected her, and colleagues were rather puzzled when Anja approached them to kill, of course just by saying so. Anja not only had an excel spreadsheet of the people to murder aboard Polarstern but in general is one of the most organized people we met so far. For her job as a project manager, she makes to-do lists: for today, for next week, for the long term, and, guess what, Markus Rex has his own to-do list. Over time, she consolidated her strategy and through learning-by-doing, Anja grew as a project manager together with MOSAiC. As part of Team Atmosphere, Anja woke up at exactly 7.13 am every day to launch one of the 77 early-morning weather balloons from Polarstern's Deck A (in total, there are four radiosondes launches per day onboard the research vessel ). Special conditions require special preparations: Because of the Arctic winter low temperatures, the weather balloon needed to be pampered in a bath of oil and kerosene before actually being sent up in the air. Special guest of the expedition and Anja's highlight when working on the ice was Lady Miss Piggy. Everybody loves that big and hard-to-miss red balloon and her home, balloon town, which appears to be the prettiest place on the ice floe observatory. Preparing a flight with Miss Piggy can be a tough job though, as the drama queen is very sensitive to winds. If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Anja created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5zjlqsxCq0yssOzBTNMqZ6?si=XHAiNhuTQXeCv-tIc_RMvQIf you want to listen to the full episode with music, check back with us: polarprediction@gmail.comFor updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63AThe IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit: Julia Wenzel (German Weather Service/DWD)

Here is the second episode on the YOPP Targeted Observing Periods, or TOPs. This time, we speak to Thomas Jung, head of the section Climate Dynamics at the German Alfred Wegener Institute and professor for Physics of the Climate System at the University of Bremen. Even more important, as the chair of the Polar Prediction Project's Steering Group, he is the captain and structured mind behind YOPP and PPP. His ability to chair a meeting even with fever from his bed not only provides him with all the skills needed to steer the Polar Prediction Project during a pandemic, but has been the ultimate test of his leadership skills. Keeping a healthy balance between management and science is probably his secret to success, in addition to creating extensive but ultrapractical mindmaps and building an international network across the academic community and forecasting experts. Thomas has also been the winner of our YOPP TOP Twitter challenge. How did he overcome the jumpiness of forecast? Here, he unveils his secret: Well, it's just like planning your next barbecue weekend (something we all look forward to during this COVID-19 summer). Take your time between an ice cream and a cold drink and listen to this episode for a look behind the scenes of YOPP, how the project came to life and how it still surprises its master of mind maps and virtual meetings.  For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63AThe IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit: Martina Buchholz (Alfred Wegener Institute)

Gunilla Svensson is a meteorology professor at Stockholm University, Sweden. She is also member of the Polar Prediction Project's Steering Group and leads the YOPP Processes Task Team. Within her role, she coordinates the YOPPSiteMIP project and the currently ongoing YOPP Targeted Observing Periods, or TOPs, aligned with MOSAiC. Wait a minute – what is YOPPSiteMIP? And what is a Targeted Observing Period? Well, listen to our new bonus episode of the IcePod where we speak with Gunilla about one of the key activities for the Year of Polar Prediction. In our first episode of what we call the TOP series of the IcePod, Gunilla explains not only what these pan-Arctic campaigns of enhanced observations are meant for. She also talks about how the TOP studies of warm air intrusions from the mid-latitudes to the central Arctic are impacted by COVID-19. And: why Polarstern's current location in the Arctic is a paradise for every Arctic scientist. Observations are just one part of the puzzle, and so is modelling. But blending the two allows to see the bigger picture. This is done within the YOPP Supersite Model Intercomparison activity – which is a long title so we just call it YOPPSiteMIP. Here, atmospheric and sea ice data from across the Arctic including MOSAiC, and respective modelling output are currently simultaneously examined. For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63AThe IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit: Eva Dalin (Stockholm University)

When the world still has been in order and people were allowed to hang out in cosy offices, we met with Markus Rex, leader of the MOSAiC ice drift, who came to Bremerhaven for two days in February to join the YOPP Science Workshop at the Alfred Wegener Institute. Markus Rex is one of those people who always manage to sleep well, even when the stress level is high. In his interview with us, he talks about the greatest challenges, nicest moments and biggest surprises during Leg 1 of the MOSAiC expedition. Luckily, coordinating MOSAiC means not only work to him: Finding those rare moments of solitude skiing on the ice floe, with the full moon enlightening the out-of-the-world Arctic landscape, gives him reward and energy. At the moment, Markus is preparing for his return to the Arctic with Leg 4. As excited as he is to see the ice camp in daylight, we wonder: Will he be able to sleep even during polar day?For updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63AThe IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit: Esther Horvath (Alfred Wegener Institute)

Remote Sensing Episode 2 of The IcePod is now online! In this episode, we talk to Gunnar Spreen from the University of Bremen who joined leg 1 of the MOSAiC sea-ice drift. After the Moon Episode with Stefan Hendricks, we dive even deeper into how the two Space Lords, Gunnar and Stefan, use remote sensing techniques  to study Arctic sea ice. Gunnar brings his expertise on sea-ice physics and how to use satellites to tell us more about the status of the (decreasing) sea ice into the MOSAiC Project Board. Listen to why Gunnar did prefer studying sea ice instead of apple trees and how he likes his eggs cooked by Polarstern's chief cook on Thursdays and Sundays. Find out why Gunnar isn't happy with cloud uncertainties in satellite data and with scientists not taking part often enough in public debates. In this fourth episode of The IcePod, Gunnar explains to us how do microwaves help him to figure out the season's maximum sea-ice extent, why a carpenter is needed to help scientists fix their broken instruments, and he uncovers for us what people get as their birthday present at Polarstern and which MOSAiC team jacket he wore not only during the expedition but now and then also in his office in Bremen.If you miss the music, find the very special playlist that Gunnar created on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6znTLn5FvVbV0iqUjixfsw?si=rnjItx6jTMSJckcdO_tMXA If you want to listen to the full episode with music, check back with us: polarprediction@gmail.comFor updates and other materials, check also our website: https://theicepodcast.home.blog/Arctic Drift Audiologbuch (in German): https://open.spotify.com/show/2f321wQiWNhIpGdi57aoRr?si=h9pA2a8BRJS4Xh-xQSM63AThe IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and sea-ice forecast in the Arctic and Antarctic. Editorial responsibility: Kirstin Werner and Sara Pasqualetto Music from https://filmmusic.io"Sweeter Vermouth" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/) Photo credit: Esther Horvath (Alfred Wegener Institute)