Landmark Arctic team caught out by coronavirus

The multinational team on the biggest Arctic research mission — MOSAiC Expedition — ever undertaken were prepared for problems from polar bear attacks to major snowstorms or even building a runway on ice, but never did they imagine that a pandemic might sweep across the world, posing a threat to their mission.

With borders slamming shut as governments sought to limit transmission of the coronavirus, the team out on the mission was all but cut off.

A team had been due to be flown in April to relieve the scientists on the ice, but the plan had to be rethought.

After two months of delay, a new crew is finally en route to Spitsbergen Island, Norway on two vessels, which will then meet up with the icebreaker Polarstern to allow the newcomers to disembark and the current team to come onboard.

Among the group heading out to the field is mission chief Markus Rex, a climatologist and physicist.

The 390-day expedition began in September, with the icebreaker departing to great fanfare from Norway.

The mission aims to study the atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, ecosystem and natural processes — looking to build a picture of how climate change is affecting the region and the entire world.

Some 600 experts are involved in the biggest research project on the Arctic.

At the end of February, the icebreaker’s drift took it to just 156 kilometers from the North Pole — never before had a ship ventured so far north during the Arctic wintertime.

Experts from about a dozen countries were meant to fly to the Polarstern from Svalbard, Norway in April, but the closure of borders had grounded available planes.

After several hurdles, the research team decided to bring the scientists as well as supplies by research ships to Spitsbergen Island.

The Polarstern will interrupt its research for several weeks to pick up the new crew.

Figuring out the logistics of the complicated personnel transfer was one thing, “we have another difficulty: ensure that the coronavirus does not get into the expedition,” Rex explained.

So crew members were put on a strict 14-day quarantine in Bremerhaven, Germany before they set off on the two research vessels.

“Everyone was tested three times,” said Rex.

If every thing goes well with the personnel transfer, Rex noted that at the end, there should not be too much impact on their research, beyond a short interruption on collection of some measurements while the Polarstern is on the way to meet up with the two research ships.

“There are automatic measuring devices at the research camp that are sending new data to us daily, that we’re eagerly looking at every day.

“In an expedition that lasts 13 months, it’s still fine to bear with an interruption of some measurements,” said Rex.

The expedition will draw to an end on October 12.