We now have a decision. Overnight we moved the Polarstern and AkademicFederov together away from the floe and lifted key personnel from AkademicFederov over for a meeting to discuss collective findings. Science and ship leadership from both sides, sitting around a large circular table in Polarstern’s blue saloon. A sharing of results…. Diagrams, measurements, interpretations. We all had similar experiences….. very thin ice, lots of frozen over melt ponds that had been melted through, generally small floes…. This is the new Arctic: thin and fragile. Except that we had found the Fortress. After some relatively quick discussions of options, all agreed that the Fortress is likely the best option to support a year-long project. So after not that many days and ahead of schedule, we’ve made a decision. It’s a trade off, of course. Big, gnarly ridged area was not really in the plan! But this gives us the best chance to complete a full year in the ice, and that is one of the most important details. We actually need to be here if we want to learn anything! And I think there is important science that can be supported by this floe. The contrast between the new Arctic and old Arctic, sitting there for us to explore. Embedded in this one floe, we have the old Arctic giving way to the new, juxtaposed on this, our MOSAiC floe.
