Home

Polarstern Cruises

Home

The Polarstern is an AWI (Alfred-Wegener Institute) research vessel, which is based in Bremerhaven, Germany (where it is pictured below). The project encompasses two research trips aboard the Polarstern:
Polarstern Seen from Side

October 2002 - February 2003	Bremerhaven - South Africa - Antarctica - Bremerhaven
October 2003 - April 2004	Bremerhaven - South America - Antarctica - South Africa - Bremerhaven

In addition to our measurements of organic halogens by GC-MS, the Polarstern project involves a variety of measurements including BrO and IO by DOAS (University of Heidelberg), O₃, aerosol size and surface area, CO and VOCs.

Bell Setup
The ship has facilities to take water samples at a range of depths and an air inlet (shown left) was attached to the ships bell to allow air samples to be taken. Both air and sea water samples were analysed for halocarbons by a specially adapted GC-MS.

All previous studies of reactive halogen species over open oceans have used off-line measuring techniques and although there is much data on methyl halides there is little data about other halocarbons. This technique allows online in situ measurements which we hope will detect these species.

Data from 2002/2003 Cruise