Category: ACE-SPACE Blog
Videos from the expedition
Mission Part I is now completed: After roughly 55.000 km of travel around the world the Akademik Tryoshnikov arrived in Bremerhaven and all material was offloaded from the ship, including our container. With that the voyage of the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition finished for us. However the project as such has merely started. Now intensive and (…)
Flying fish and other peculiarities – Leg 4 from Cape Town to Europe
Position 51.18724 N / 1.7779 E on Apr 10, 2017 at 06:29 The final part of the ACE expedition, Leg 4, is coming to an end. After weeks of wind and sunshine, we are expected to arrive in rainy Bremerhaven on Tuesday. All are counting the days to get back home to friends, family and (…)
How to keep cool at the equator – Leg 4 from Cape Town to Europe
Position 0°0′S, 9°52′W We crossed the equator early this morning. Everybody woke up at 5 am to stare at the GPS (it was completely dark, so there was nothing else to see). Since a few days now, the sun has been heating the walls of the red container (where our aerosol and gas measurements are (…)
Back to the sea – Leg 4 from Cape Town to Europe starts
Position 33°55′S, 18°25′E Antarctic was circumnavigated. A boat full of happy scientists arrived in Cape Town and was met by the press and fellow ACE participants. Julia Schmale from PSI gave a talk at the ACE science conference about the connections between the atmosphere and the ocean. A lot of hassle, celebrations, goodbyes. However, a (…)
Circumnavigation completed
Position 33°55′S, 18°25′E Three months it took us to circumnavigate Antarctica in the first expedition led by the newly formed Swiss Polar Institute. The journey took us from Cape Town, South Africa, via Hobart, Tasmania, and Punta Arenas, Chile, back to Cape Town. In these 90 days, on the Russian ice breaker Akademik Tryoshnikov, we (…)
Bouvetoya: Last stop before Cape Town
Position 54°26′S, 3°24′E With just two more weeks to go, we headed towards Bouvetoya, a Norwegian island in the middle of the South Atlantic. Bouvetoya is among the most remote islands on Earth based on the long distance to the surrounding land masses. The island is covered by a glacier and is rather small, roughly (…)
Volcanic eruption on the South Sandwich Islands
Position 57°S 32°W The South Sandwich Islands are just one and a half days of steaming away from South Georgia. We left South Georgia in a storm and were unable to outrun it before getting to the islands. After trawling at the northern end of the Archipelago, we actually stationed downwind of Saunders Island for (…)
First stop on the last leg: South Georgia
Position 56°55′S 32°24′W After a short visit in Punta Arenas, Chile, we are back at sea, crossing right away the subpolar front. The sunny and calm days of leg 2 lie behind us, we are back to the raging 50s. One low pressure system is followed by the other, and while we managed to stay (…)
Last stop before Punta Arenas: Sub-antarctic island Diego Ramirez
Position 56°29′S 68°44′W After Peter I Island, we take a track along the Antarctic Peninsula in relatively sheltered seas. Particle number concentrations are very low. We are all very curious how the crossing of the Drake Passage will turn out. Mentally we are ready for heavy seas. The wave project is looking forward to the (…)
Supreme weather at Peter I Island
Position 68°51′S 90°35′W Even though we had decided to skip Peter I Island our track led us very close to the island and the weather was just supreme. It would have been a pity not to make this stop. So we deviated slightly from the course to spend half a day at the island. When (…)