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BERLIN (AP) – A German icebreaker carrying scientists on a year-long international expedition to the High Arctic has reached the North Pole, after making an unscheduled detour due to more sea ice conditions lighter than usual.
Expedition leader Markus Rex said on Wednesday the RV Polarstern was able to reach the geographic North Pole due to large openings in the sea ice that would normally make navigation in the area above Greenland too difficult. .
“We made rapid progress in a matter of days,” Rex told The Associated Press. “It’s breathtaking – back then we had open water as far as the eye could see.”
The region above northern Greenland is generally covered with thick sea ice that has sometimes accumulated over several years, he said. But this year, the Polarstern was able to get from the Fram Strait ice edge to the Pole in less than a week.
The mission sailed from the German port of Bremerhaven last September, anchored to a pack ice, and conducted numerous experiments to study the impact of global warming on the Arctic until the summer heat broke the ice cover.
After passing the pole, the Polarstern will drop anchor on a new ice floe and observe the start of the freezing process which will see the Arctic covered with a new mantle of sea ice.
The 100 crew members and scientists will return to Bremerhaven, Germany on October 12.
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Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/Climate
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