Berlin (AFP)
The largest scientific expedition ever to be carried out in the Arctic begins Friday a year-long international mission to study the consequences of climate change particularly tangible to the North Pole, announced the German institute that leads this initiative.
The icebreaker "Polarstern" from the Alfred-Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven (northwestern Germany) is due to leave the Norwegian port of Tromsø around 8:30 pm (1830 GMT) as part of this giant mission called "Mosaic".
This is "a major event", "a dream come true," Markus Rex, head of this outstanding mission, told a news conference in Tromsø just hours before the Polarstern's departure. ".
"We look forward to doing the research we urgently need to better understand the Arctic climate," he added.
In total, some 600 experts and scientists plan to take turns for some 390 days, with a total icebreaker of 2,500 km. The teams will face in particular 150 days of polar night and temperatures that can fall to -45 ° C.
At least six people will also be employed solely to locate and ward off polar bears and thus ensure the safety of scientists in their work.
"Soon we will say goodbye to the sun (...) We will work in total darkness, we will be isolated, a thousand kilometers from other human beings", detailed the scientist, stating: "We we will have to deal with all sorts of problems, especially medical ones ".
Experts will study both the atmosphere, the ocean, the ice sea and the ecosystem to gather data to see how climate change affects the region and the world.
"No other part of the Earth has warmed up as fast in recent decades as the Arctic," Markus Rex said on the "Mosaic" website. "This is where the epicenter of global warming is located, and at the same time so far we understand very little about this region".
"We will not be able to make a good forecast of our climate if we do not have spikey prognoses for the Arctic," he says.
The situation in the Arctic is worrying. "At the beginning of the year, we had an extreme case: in the central Arctic, it was hotter than in Germany," he says.
The "Polarstern" will be accompanied by four icebreakers from Russia, China and Sweden, as well as planes and helicopters to refuel and allow the teams a rotation.
Around the boat, several observation stations will be installed, the furthest being some 50 km away.
To carry out its mission, the boat will be caught in the ice and drift with them according to the polar drift, the ocean current flowing from east to west in the Arctic Ocean.
The ice drifts an average of 7 km per day and should drag the Polarstern up to a thousand kilometers from the mainland.
"For us scientists, it is important to protect this environment and to ensure that the next generations always see the sea of ice on which we will conduct this research," said Rex.
Sixty institutes and 19 countries are cooperating on this project, which has a budget of 140 million euros and is to collect for the first time comprehensive data on climate at the North Pole.
© 2019 AFP