Maps and Exploration

CONTRASTS Expedition

The CONTRASTS expedition was a two-month scientific expedition in the Arctic Ocean (July 2025 – September 2025) to investigate sea ice melt across three regimes: seasonal, first- and second‑year, and multiyear ice. The expedition was designed to compare these regimes under similar seasonal conditions by applying an identical measurement programme at each site and repeating observations over several weeks. It investigated sea-ice melt across three regimes of differing age and origin in the Central Arctic Ocean, aiming to fill observational gaps from MOSAiC expedition and enhance understanding of late-summer and autumn transitions. Unlike the MOSAiC expedition, which focused on a single drifting ice floe, CONTRASTS explicitly sampled multiple sea ice regimes to capture spatial variability in the Arctic sea ice system. During the journey, the research icebreaker Polarstern moved between multiple ice floes representing three sea ice regimes. The expedition investigated the causes of sea ice melt in three contrasting sea ice regimes in response to atmospheric and oceanographic conditions. These three regimes were: (1) first-year ice drifting along the marginal ice zone, (2) second- and multiyear ice formed in the Russian Arctic, and (3) multiyear ice from the north of Greenland and Canada. Regime 1 is expected to dominate the Arctic in the future, regime 2 previously dominated but is now often melting before reaching the Fram Strait, and regime 3 was formerly more widespread. The regimes represent “future Arctic”, “present Arctic”, and “past Arctic”. Work at each floe was organized around ice stations, with revisits planned for approximately three and six weeks later. This was complemented by autonomous stations deployed at the start of the expedition, which provided continuous measurements throughout the duration of the expedition. The selected time in July and August was aimed to fill the observational gaps left by the MOSAiC expedition regarding late-summer and autumn transitions.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Autódromo de Sitges-Terramar
• ▸Highland Railway Jones Goods Class
• ▸Addis Ababa

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.