The Polarstern has been breaking a canal into the sea-ice for some days now to open a way for the Naja Arctica to the shelf ice edge near the Neumayer station. It is on the sea-ice in front of Neumayer where the colonies of Emperor penguins are. That we know, and every now and then whole groups of adult penguins pass by on the ice. Well, we have seen grown-up penguins before, but I would have loved to see the young ones, especially since they are so close! We can not get to the colony, but the penguin chicks ae nice enough to come and visit us. And so I am standing on deck until 2 a.m., watching a group of young emperors on their first trip to the water. This sight is really the nicest I have ever had of any penguins. ...

To be precise, this is my 12th Sunday on Polarstern. As I participated in the transit from Bremerhaven to Cape Town, I have been on Board as long as the crew. Of course, my longing for my family, friend and home is growing, but Polarstern is an easy place to call home for a while. Even after all these weeks no feeling of everyday life has crept in. Each day is different from the previous, some are more exciting than others, but it is never boring. On today’s program was, like on every Sunday, the weightwatcher’s club – one of the few regularly occurring events on board besides the meals. After that I went for the regular cooling container check-up. As we stopped station work a few days ago, I am glad to be able to keep some animals alive for experiments. I am one of th...

Definitely no plans for today. But life on board is sometimes surprising and unexpected things happen. And today is one of these days. Just during breakfast time I received wonderful news… “at 9 o’clock there will be an AGT”…and only in a few hundred meters of depth…this means…Cnidarians!! I was really delighted and hopeful…maybe this time I will find the missing genus, the object of my PhD studies. “Antarctica’s gorgonians. Evolution and biodiversity. Distribution and reproduction patterns.” This is the title of my research, focused on the family Primnoidae and mainly on the genus Thouarella, the best represented in the Southern Ocean. Around half of the species have been described from Antarctic waters, and most of them were found below 800 m depth. T...

20th January 2008 So we were done! Finished at Patriot Hills. Now we just had to take advantage of the glorious still weather and wait for the Air National Guard to come pick us up. It felt brilliant to be finished. We had packed and palletized all our gear and expected the call that the Hercules was coming at any minute. No call. Followed a little later by the lack of call. Followed just a while later by nothing. Followed somewhat later by a cancellation notice. “Must be the weather at McMurdo” Someone suggested. “Nope” – according to Mac Weather we, at Patriot Hills, were having terrible weather. You know what, they were right. It was cloudy, there was seven of ‘em. I know, I...

Position: 90 °S, 0 °E Elevation: 2836 masl Maximum and Minimum temperatures: -26 °C & -35 °C At 3 a.m. in the night Jan-Gunnar had a video teleconference with the Norwegian Prime Minister Mr. Jens Stoltenberg at Troll. The Prime Minister congratulated the expedition with its achievements and important contribution to climate research. The teleconference also included a press conference where the press at Troll had questions for Jan-Gunnar. Then in the afternoon, the remaining expedition members arrived at the South Pole. It was a moment of happiness when we all were together again. Thus, the expedition has almost come to an end and we are excited having completed this major undertaking. In the evening we had a gathering with some of the NSF...

Position: 90 °S, 0 °E Elevation: 2836 masl Maximum and Minimum temperatures: -26 °C & -35 °C At 3 a.m. in the night Jan-Gunnar had a video teleconference with the Norwegian Prime Minister Mr. Jens Stoltenberg at Troll. The Prime Minister congratulated the expedition with its achievements and important contribution to climate research. The teleconference also included a press conference where the press at Troll had questions for Jan-Gunnar. Then in the afternoon, the remaining expedition members arrived at the South Pole. It was a moment of happiness when we all were together again. Thus, the expedition has almost come to an end and we are excited having completed this major undertaking. In the evening we had a gathering with some of the NSF...

Two nights ago three of us left Patriot Hills to go and install the GPS and seismic site at Dufek Massif, or more correctly Cordiner Peaks (82° 51’ 41.6”S, 53° 12’ 00.4”W), just to the south of Dufek. The weather at Patriot has been strangely nice, low winds, warm sun and warm tents. People have been sleeping on top of their sleep kits and complaining of the heat (it was 83°F in one tent earlier). To get to Dufek is a bit of a haul. We flew about an hour and a half to a site where the New York Air National Guard had kindly pushed 40 barrels of fuel from a low flying Hercules. Troubl...

Report from the Swedish part of the Japanese-Swedish Antarctic Expedition, JASE, Report no 20. We arrived today in late afternoon to the Svea Station (74o34’S, 11o13’W). The view from the station is magnificent over the large blue ice areas of Scharffenbergbotnen, surrounded by alpine mountain walls. The weather is excellent and we are all excited by the incredible environment, though we have seen it before. However, the experience is probably enhanced by the fact that we only have watched the snowy horizon of the Polar Plateau for more than a month. Nevertheless, this is a beautiful place. The decent from the Polar Plateau went smooth and quick. We climbed down 1200 metres in altitude on one day and today we have been driving along the Heim...

Report from the Swedish part of the Japanese-Swedish Antarctic Expedition, JASE. Report no 19. We have now reached 75oS, 10oW which is our last science stop on our traverse. Here the ice surface is undulating as a result of a very strong bedrock relief underneath us. The ice depth varies between 500 and 3000 m over short distances. The mountains can only be seen on the radar screen but they tell a story of how the ice sheet once was formed here for some 20 million years ago. We will spend a day of detailed mapping of a section of these mountains for a landscape development analysis. The travel from the Kohnen station to this site went very smoothly. The weather was fine and the snow conditions have greatly improved since we passed here in the beginning of Dece...

Position: 90 °S, 0 °E Elevation: 2836 masl Maximum and Minimum temperatures: -24 °C & -32 °C We arrived in beautiful weather 5.30 in the morning and were met by a small delegation of representatives of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and a photographer from PolarPalooza. It is an impressive infrastructure here – the new station that opened only a week ago is modern and contains whatever you may need – store, post office, games room, gym, computer facilities and much more. It was a big contrast from the primitive field life we have been living for more than two months. Later in the day, we had two flights to the camp and almost all of our ice cores were brought to South Pole. After resting, the pilot and his crew will continue the operation and ho...