On September 20, 2019 POLARSTERN is leaving the safe harbor to stay in the Arctic sea ice for the following year. With this enormous campaign a unprecedented, cromprehensive dataset for the central Arctic will be acquired (https://www.awi.de/im-fokus/mosaic-expedition.html).  Scientists of the Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology will use this once-in-a lifetime-opportunity to investigate Arctic clouds.

Clouds are not only causing snowfall in the Arctic. Depending on their propertiers, they may also cast cooling shadows or act as a warming blanket. To investigate further which effects occur, the polar aircraft POLAR5 will be equipped with a variety of high-end remote sensing instruments and fly between Svalbard and the POLARSTERN next March, April and August. In addition, detailed modeling will be conducted in Cologne to understand these measurements and the underlying processes in-depth.

In the CRC (AC)3 http://www.ac3-tr.de/, which leads the German investigation of Arctic Amplification and where Cologne meteorologists are deeply involved, valuable insights will be gained so that we can better understand the Arctic and our climate sytem.