Polar bear guard and corona quarantine

If you ask the geophysicist Uwe Nixdorf and the physician Eberhard Kohlberg how they are feeling right now, the answer is: "Relieved and happy". The two members of the MOSAiC planning team are relieved and happy that the largest expedition in international Arctic research to date has come to a successful and happy end.

After all, a twelve-month research stay, hibernation in the perpetual ice of the Arctic with around 500 researchers and crew members, temperatures as low as -42 degrees Celsius and curious polar bears on their necks are a challenge in themselves. But then the corona pandemic caused additional excitement in the large MOSAiC team. It threw fixed planning parameters out of kilter and pushed all those responsible to their limits and robbed them of sleep at times. "One thing is clear," say Nixdorf and Kohlberg in unison: "If we had had corona-infected people on board despite all the precautions we took, that would have been the end of MOSAiC - then the "Polarstern" would have had to make its way home before then. So there was a lot at stake.

During the more than 300 days of research on and on the 8.75 square kilometer ice floe, half a dozen of the expedition members were always on duty as polar bear guards to warn the camp researchers in time. This obviously worked well: "There were no negative incidents, neither humans nor polar bears were injured," says Nixdorf.

However, the effects of the Corona pandemic on the supply and on the planned six exchange trips and flights caused the crew and researchers all kinds of headaches. Instead of six exchanges, there were only five due to corona, which in turn forced some of the researchers gathered from all continents to stay on board the "Polarstern" almost twice as long as originally planned.

Strict medical checks - and corona protection measures

The corona pandemic demanded strong nerves not only from the logistics experts, but also from Medical Officer Eberhard Kohlberg of the AWI. Kohlberg was responsible for the thorough health check that all expedition participants had to undergo. The certificates of the foreign participants were also placed on his desk for examination. "Under normal conditions, pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or cardiopulmonary diseases are already a criterion for exclusion from participating in such a long expedition," says Kohlberg, who himself spent the winter at the Georg von Neumayer Research Station in Antarctica several years ago.

Strict corona measures were added from spring 2020. The first few months of the pandemic were particularly complicated, during which it was often uncertain whether and how expedition participants from Asia, New Zealand or the USA would even reach Bremerhaven. Without exception, all the scientists who were to be brought to the "Polarstern" for exchange had to pass through the eye of the needle in the quarantine in Bremerhaven. Twice between spring and summer a complete hotel was "chartered" for this purpose, all participants spent two weeks isolated in their hotel rooms and were tested for COVID-19 three times during this time. Afterwards a thoroughly disinfected bus brought them on board of "Sonne", "Maria S. Merian" and "Akademik Tryoshnikov".

And if there had been another case of illness? "Polarstern" has a sick bay with medical equipment and with possibilities for isolation of individual patients. In addition, a doctor trained in surgery and a nurse are permanently on board," says Kohlberg. The onboard doctor has basic dental knowledge, so that even the odd badly aching tooth or crack in an inlay can be treated. There is a telemedical connection to the Reinkenheide Clinic in Bremerhaven via satellite. This allows the onboard doctor to contact colleagues at any time and transmit the patient's findings and data online. Even an anesthesia monitoring is possible in this way.

Behind MOSAiC, besides scientific excellence, there is also a logistical tour de force. 20 to 30 colleagues were involved in MOSAiC planning on the AWI side, on land in Bremerhaven and on the "Polarstern". A total of about 300 people worked in the background to make the expedition possible. It cost 200,000 Euro per day to keep MOSAiC running smoothly - the two necessary quarantine runs in Bremerhaven alone cost about 150,000 Euro each.

For Uwe Nixdorf, head of logistics, the success of the expedition and the good international cooperation is once again proof that national borders and political conflicts in the scientific community play no role: "What counts is the joint work on a globally relevant topic - research into climate change.