World’s biggest Arctic mission returns to Germany warning of ice-free summers within decades

The Polarstern research vessel is towed by a moorer after a year-long drift across the Arctic

Credit: David Hecker /Getty Images Europe 

Scientists returning from the world’s biggest mission to the North Pole have warned that the Arctic is "dying" and will soon be ice-free in the summer. 

The expedition, which set off last September and docked in the German port of Bremerhaven on Monday found ice that was "badly eroded, melted, thin and brittle," mission leader Markus Rex said. 

The €150 million (£136 million) Polarstern expedition was organised to better understand the Arctic and help scientists predict the impacts of climate change. 

Mr Rex said: "We witnessed how the Arctic ocean is dying. We saw this process right outside our windows, or when we walked on the brittle ice."

A rotating team of more than 300 scientists from 20 countries including the UK spent months camping on a large ice floe, taking ice and water samples.

Early results released in February suggested that ice observed at the end of September, when the expedition began, was "exceptionally thin" compared to that seen in earlier polar studies. 

Ice-free summers could become a reality in the Arctic soon

Credit: David Goldman /AP

In a research paper the team said that ice floes were not travelling as far as in the past, which could have consequences for the Arctic ecosystem. 

The expedition was disrupted in the spring by the coronavirus pandemic, which forced it to hurriedly redraw plans to fly in a new team to relieve the existing scientists, as flights were cancelled around the world. 

More than 1,000 ice samples and 150 terabytes of data were collected, with the team hoping to be able to better predict how heatwaves and storms will affect the regions.

Thomas Krumpen, a German sea ice physicist, said a full analysis could take a decade to complete. 

Satellite imagery showed that last year saw Arctic ice retreat to its second-smallest extent in 42 years, behind 2012’s lowest point. 

So far recorded temperature changes have been more extreme at the poles than elsewhere on earth, with the Arctic warming the most quickly.