Three years after its marathon voyage across the Central Arctic Ocean frozen in the ice, the German scientific research ship Polarstern has once again reached the North Pole.
This time the expedition is shorter, two months rather than a full year, and the ship is powering through the ice, not encased in it and adrift.
But the goal of the scientists on board is the same: a better understanding of how the Central Arctic is changing as the planet warms.
Sea-ice coverage in the Arctic shrinks in spring and summer and reaches a minimum in mid-September.
The record was set in 2012, and Polarstern was in the Arctic that year, too.
Persons:
Polarstern, Antje