Near the end of summer, the research vessel Polarstern found itself in an ironic — and telling — situation: As it neared a historic rendezvous with the North Pole, the German icebreaker found relatively little solid ice to break.
Although they couldn't know it at the time, the situation foreshadowed an announcement today by the National Snow and Ice Data Center: Arctic sea ice has likely reached its second lowest extent on record, following a dramatic melt-off in early September.
Even before that large-scale melting, the Polarstern was cruising through very light ice conditions in a region above northern Greenland that's usually covered in thick sea ice. The ship's destination: the North Pole.
“We made fast progress in a few days,” expedition leader Markus Rex told the Associated Press. “It’s breathtaking — at times we had open water as far as the eye could see.”
