What do Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev have to do with the Polar Prediction Project? In the very last episode of The IcePod, things get turned upside down. When Kirstin Werner, former head of the PPP Coordination Office, moved on last fall, someone got the idea to grill her about her work with the Polar Prediction community before she left. He…

Finally, it's there! As promised earlier, the short version of our The IcePod interview with Captain Thomas Wunderlich in English language is now available. Thomas Wunderlich took over the command of the German research icebreaker RV Polarstern for leg 4 and 5 of the MOSAiC expedition in June 2020. Thomas Wunderlich is one of currently three captai…

In the new episode of The IcePod, we meet with Karin Strand, Vice President of Expeditions of Hurtigruten, a Norwegian coastal ferry service and cruise line that offers expeditions to Antarctica. When Karin Strand began studying law in the late 1990s, she had no idea where life would take her. It all started with a student job in the summer; here s…

In this episode of The IcePod, we talk to Nina Gallo about her work as a tour guide in Antarctica and how she gets the most out for her Antarctica-loving passengers, even when the weather is unstable. Nina came to Antarctica about five years ago when she applied for a tour guide position in Antarctica. "Australia has a strong connection to Antarcti…

In the first episode of The IcePod, season 2, we talk to Lasse Rabenstein and Panagiotis Kountouris. They run the start-up Drift+Noise Polar Services, which could potentially become the ‘one-stop solution for ice information'. "If I were the captain of a fishing vessel sailing north of Svalbard..." – In this episode, Lasse and Panos tell us about t…

In the first season, Sara Pasqualetto and Kirstin Werner of the International Polar Prediction Coordination Office invited participants from the MOSAiC expedition who spent a year drifting through Arctic sea ice on the German research icebreaker RV Polarstern. Guests on the podcast were able to share details from the MOSAiC expedition about their s…

Surprise, surprise! After the final episode with Matt Shupe, we have another one for you. In this German edition of The IcePod, we talk to Captain Thomas Wunderlich who took over the command of the German research icebreaker RV Polarstern for leg 4 and 5 of the MOSAiC expedition in June 2020. Thomas Wunderlich is one of currently three captains on …

Here's the final episode of The IcePod's season 1. It's a pretty special one because we got to meet one of the highest-ranked people of MOSAiC – it's Matt Shupe. Matt has been the co-lead of the expedition and stayed onboard Polarstern for the first, the dark one, and the fourth, the light leg of the one-year expedition. Matt really is a cloud pers…

Number Eleven! It's the ocean episode. As we finally enter the last leg of the MOSAiC expedition, we get to talk to Zoe Koenig who is an Arctic physical oceanographer at the University of Bergen and the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø. Zoe was leading team Ocean during leg 5 which clearly differed from the previous ones as the original MOSAiC i…

For the tenth episode of The IcePod, we jump from the scientific part to the logistical aspects of the expedition. To carry out research in the living room of the polar bears requires people who take care of keeping everybody safe. "The binoculars are my weapons", says Laura Schmidt, member of the Safety and Logistics Team during MOSAiC leg 4. Laur…

If anybody has an idea of the uncountable number of data points retrieved during the MOSAiC one-year ice drift, it can only be Antonia Immerz. Antonia is the data manager of MOSAiC, she has joined leg 1 and leg 4 onboard Polarstern, and she is one of the few lucky ones (or should we rather call her 'brave'?) who took a bath in an Arctic melt pond. …

In episode eight of the IcePod, we get to hear back from one of our previous guests – Stefanie Arndt who already spoke with us before leaving for the Arctic (Bonus Episode One). After 145 days away from her home in Bremerhaven, she tells us all about MOSAiC expedition leg 3. Stefanie Arndt is a sea-ice scientist at the German Alfred Wegener Institu…

Have you managed to make your hobby a profession? Everybody tries – Robert Hausen succeeded. For the seventh episode of The IcePod, we met with Robert Hausen who works as a forecaster for the German Weather Service (DWD). He joined leg 3 of the MOSAiC expedition. Since Robert was a kid, he always waited for the snow to fall and grew up wondering ab…

The IcePod goes live and Antarctic! For our first live episode that we broadcasted during the APECS workshop "Antarctic Science: Global connections", we met with the Australian weather observer and Ph.D. candidate Vicki Heinrich. Well, actually, it wasn't only Vicki but we had another special guest: Vickie's pet cat sneaking around. For more than t…

For the sixth episode, the IcePod went overseas where we connected with Taneil Uttal in Boulder, Colorado. Taneil is a meteorologist at NOAA, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. To join the second leg of MOSAiC, Taneil didn't have to do anything but hire Matt Shupe – MOSAiC's co-lead – many years ago. How smart it sometimes ca…

Here is the scary episode of the IcePod. In the fifth full episode of the IcePod, we talk to Anja Sommerfeld, atmospheric scientist and project manager of MOSAiC. During Leg 2 onboard Polarstern, however, Anja had an additional role to fill: In the murderer game she happens to pick the 'wrong' ticket but brilliantly fulfilled her job as a murderer.…

Here is the second episode on the YOPP Targeted Observing Periods, or TOPs. This time, we speak to Thomas Jung, head of the section Climate Dynamics at the German Alfred Wegener Institute and professor for Physics of the Climate System at the University of Bremen. Even more important, as the chair of the Polar Prediction Project's Steering Group, h…

Gunilla Svensson is a meteorology professor at Stockholm University, Sweden. She is also member of the Polar Prediction Project's Steering Group and leads the YOPP Processes Task Team. Within her role, she coordinates the YOPPSiteMIP project and the currently ongoing YOPP Targeted Observing Periods, or TOPs, aligned with MOSAiC. Wait a minute – wha…

When the world still has been in order and people were allowed to hang out in cosy offices, we met with Markus Rex, leader of the MOSAiC ice drift, who came to Bremerhaven for two days in February to join the YOPP Science Workshop at the Alfred Wegener Institute. Markus Rex is one of those people who always manage to sleep well, even when the stres…

Remote Sensing Episode 2 of The IcePod is now online! In this episode, we talk to Gunnar Spreen from the University of Bremen who joined leg 1 of the MOSAiC sea-ice drift. After the Moon Episode with Stefan Hendricks, we dive even deeper into how the two Space Lords, Gunnar and Stefan, use remote sensing techniques to study Arctic sea ice. Gunnar b…

Here’s the Moon Episode of the IcePod! For our Third Episode, we met with Stefan Hendricks, who is a sea ice physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute and joined Leg 1 on board Polarstern with the Remote Sensing Team. Not only we talked with Stefan about the Moon – the Earth satellite, which had quite some impact on Leg 1 sea ice conditions – but a…

On our second episode we take a further look behind the scenes of MOSAiC. The master student and professional photographer Thea Schneider was one of the lucky ones, namely one of the twenty early career scientists who went on board the Russian icebreaker Akademik Fedorov, which supported Polarstern in the Central Arctic. In our interview, Thea tell…

Because it's Christmas, we like to give to all of you a special gift that you can enjoy during the holiday season. In this bonus episode, the sea-ice scientist Stefanie Arndt shares with us how she's preparing for her departure to join the MOSAiC ice camp end of January. Steffi has been involved in the Year of Polar Prediction for a long time deplo…

Here is the first episode! In an interview with us, climate scientist Thomas Rackow talks about his duties as a YOPP modelling lecturer for the MOSAiC school aboard the Russian research icebreaker Akademik Fedorov that accompanied Polarstern on her transit into the central Arctic sea ice in September and October 2019. It's all about first times: no…

In the second trailer of the IcePod we talk to the mathematician and climate scientist Thomas Rackow. Thomas joins the organizing team of the MOSAiC School as a lecturer on climate and sea-ice modelling. About twenty early career scientist were lucky to be chosen to participate in the MOSAiC School that takes place aboard the Russian icebreaker Aka…

This is the first trailer of the IcePod podcast. The IcePod is the podcast about polar science and the people. We’ll talk to scientists who went on board Polarstern, the German research icebreaker, for the biggest research expedition in the Arctic. The IcePod is the official podcast of the Year of Polar Prediction initiative to improve weather and …