MOSAIC Expedition: A Year Frozen in the Arctic Ice
Event Information
About this Event
The MOSAiC expedition is the largest Arctic Ocean science expedition in history. Since 2019, a group of 100 people onboard the Polarstern icebreaker has been frozen and drifting with the Arctic sea ice for one year across the Central Arctic Ocean. During the yearlong expedition, scientists will take the closest look ever at the Arctic as the epicenter of global warming. The climate processes behind the unparalleled warming of the Arctic are not well understood because even basic, long-term observations are lacking, particularly during Arctic winter when the ice is so thick, that it cannot be broken by even the most powerful research icebreakers. The endeavor will follows in the footsteps of Fridtjof Nansen's groundbreaking expedition with the wooden sailing ship Fram in 1893-1896.
Two MOSAIC team members will present their observations and bring our audience to the icebreaker, observing how explorers and scientists live in harsh conditions, conducting vital research.
Prof. Dr. Markus Rex is the head of MOSAiC and the leader of the expedition. He is the head of the Atmospheric Research section at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and is full professor at the University of Potsdam. He has worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA, CalTech in California. He has published over 80 scientific papers in the area of polar and climate research and has conducted numerous research expeditions to both polar regions, the tropical Atlantic, the tropical Pacific, Borneo, Palau and Nepal.
Esther Horvath is a photograher. Her passion for the Arctic Ocean started in 2015, when she received an assignment from Audubon magazine to document science and research being conducted in the Arctic aboard the US Coast Guard icebreaker Healy. Since the first expedition, she documented multiple science groups involved in developing new polar research projects. Horvath’s work has been covered in The New York Times, National Geographic, Audubon Magazine, Wall Street Journal, TIME, among others.
6:00 pm - Reception
7:00 pm - Program