Polarstern Arctic Science Adventure presented at the Loon Center Nov. 17

MOULTONBOROUGH — The Lakes Region Chapter of NH Audubon will present a program with Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute senior scientist Carin Ashjian, who participated in the MOSAiC Expedition aboard the icebreaker Polarstern in 2020, which was the largest Arctic science expedition ever attempted. 

Carin’s program will be presented at the Loon Center on Lee’s Mills Road on Thursday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. The program is free and open to the public.

The goal of the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition was to take the closest look ever at the Arctic as the epicenter of global warming and to gain fundamental insights that are key to better understand global climate change. Hundreds of researchers from 20 countries were involved in this exceptional endeavour. Following in the footsteps of Fridtjof Nansen's ground-breaking expedition with his wooden sailing ship Fram in 1893-1896, the MOSAiC expedition brought a modern research icebreaker close to the North Pole for a full year including for the first time in polar winter. The data gathered will be used by scientists around the globe to take climate research to a completely new level.

The Polarstern was already frozen in the ice when Carin and the 60-plus members of the third team to travel to the ship left Tromso, Norway, in late January, 2020. After 24 days of icebreaking aboard the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn, they reached the Polarstern, planning to stay and do science in their various disciplines, including atmospheric, ecosystem, sea ice, and biogeochemistry, until the end of April, when they would be replaced by the team of Leg 4. Due to the outbreak of the pandemic, Carin’s team remained on the ship until the beginning of June, arriving back in Norway mid-June to a world of mask-wearing and quarantines. Carin was a part of Team Ecosystem, and her specialty is the study of copepods, tiny aquatic crustaceans that form the basis of the Arctic food chain.

The Loon Center is located at 183 Lees Mill Road, and is handicapped accessible. For more information, call 603-476-5666.