The sea ice minimum in the Antarctic has been passed and the extent of the ice in the eastern Weddell Sea is increasing.
But in the western part, where the expedition ship Agulhas II is currently searching for the wreck of the Endurance, the weather changes.
That's gratifying.
On March 1, the temperature even rises to freezing point, so the researchers can use sticky snow to build a snowman.
The next day it's minus 10 degrees, nobody is allowed on the ice because of the wind;
the wind chill is minus 30 degrees.
The helicopter team organizes a table tennis tournament.
But the mood is sometimes depressed.
The shadow of the Ukraine war hangs over the Agulhas II, whose crew can follow world events via the Internet.
Ernest Shackleton's expedition was also faced with difficult global political omens.
In 1914 he set out a week after the start of the First World War.
His offer to cancel the Antarctic crossing project in order to provide the fleet with endurance was rejected by then Navy Secretary Winston Churchill.
Although the Endurance later sank in the sea of ice, Shackleton returned home a celebrated hero.
His rescue operation over several months on land and sea and his management skills are still praised today as examples of successful crisis management.
Still no wreck
"This Endurance22 expedition is living history," says Lasse Rabenstein, the project's chief scientist. "It is intended to round off and continue telling a century-old chapter."
After all, there was uncertainty as to whether the crew would find their way home again.
"Our only uncertainty is whether we will find the wreck," Rabenstein clarifies.
It's Friday, March 4th, minus 12 degrees.
The expedition is being extended, but in six days at the latest, on March 10th, the Agulhas II has to make its way back to Cape Town.
The study area has not yet been completely scanned.
Rabenstein coordinates every day when which researcher can go on the ice.
He now mostly stays on board for office work and meetings, for example with the ice pilot, Captain Freddie Ligthelm.
A snow buoy that Stefanie Arndt from the Alfred Wegener Institute installed on an ice floe is proving to be helpful when creating new ice maps.
The buoy continuously sends data on snowfall and GPS position.
Rabenstein thus corrects the drift of the satellite image from a few hours ago to the current point in time.
The buoy is used for Arndt's research.
The sea ice physicist has been studying the ice and snow structures of the Weddell Sea for several years in a row.
She collects samples and drill cores, determines the composition, age and type of snow and ice.
This is also interesting from a climatological point of view, because ice cover and global climate changes are related: ice reflects solar energy.
When the ice disappears, the ocean warms up more.
Satellite measurements are needed to continuously monitor changes in sea ice.
However, measuring the thickness of sea ice from space is still subject to great uncertainty due to the complex composition of ice and snow, which particularly exists in the Weddell Sea.
A special feature of this region is that the ice not only grows from below, but also increases from above due to compacted and transformed snow.
All of these layers of ice have different physical properties.
The ice and snow data acquired on the expedition will also be used by the DLR researchers on board to validate information derived from satellites.
Because as part of the joint research project EisKlass2, funded by the mFUND of the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport, artificial intelligence is being developed to automatically classify the ice for future maps.
Thanks to the extensive scientific data collection, this expedition will definitely be considered a success - whatever the outcome of the wreck search.