Shupe, MD, Rex, M, Blomquist, B, Persson, POG, Schmale, J, Uttal, T, Althausen, D, Angot, H, Archer, S, Bariteau, L, Beck, I, Bilberry, J, Bucci, S, Buck, C, Boyer, M, Brasseur, Z, Brooks, IM, Calmer, R, Cassano, J, Castro, V, Chu, D, Costa, D, Cox, CJ, Creamean, J, Crewell, S, Dahlke, S, Damm, E, de Boer, G, Deckelmann, H, Dethloff, K, Dütsch, M, Ebell, K, Ehrlich, A, Ellis, J, Engelmann, R, Fong, AA, Frey, MM, Gallagher, MR, Ganzeveld, L, Gradinger, R, Graeser, J, Greenamyer, V, Griesche, H, Griffiths, S, Hamilton, J, Heinemann, G, Helmig, D, Herber, A, Heuzé, C, Hofer, J, Houchens, T, Howard, D, Inoue, J, Jacobi, H-W, Jaiser, R, Jokinen, T, Jourdan, O, Jozef, G, King, W, Kirchgaessner, A, Klingebiel, M, Krassovski, M, Krumpen, T, Lampert, A, Landing, W, Laurila, T, Lawrence, D, Lonardi, M, Loose, B, Lüpkes, C, Maahn, M, Macke, A, Maslowski, W, Marsay, C, Maturilli, M, Mech, M, Morris, S, Moser, M, Nicolaus, M, Ortega, P, Osborn, J, Pätzold, F, Perovich, DK, Petäjä, T, Pilz, C, Pirazzini, R, Posman, K, Powers, H, Pratt, KA, Preußer, A, Quéléver, L, Radenz, M, Rabe, B, Rinke, A, Sachs, T, Schulz, A, Siebert, H, Silva, T, Solomon, A, Sommerfeld, A, Spreen, G, Stephens, M, Stohl, A, Svensson, G, Uin, J, Viegas, J, Voigt, C, von der Gathen, P, Wehner, B, Welker, JM, Wendisch, M, Werner, M, Xie, ZQ, Yue, F. (2022) Overview of the MOSAiC expedition—Atmosphere. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 10(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2021.00060

In October 2019, the RV Polarstern was purposely frozen in the high Arctic pack ice to be used as a research platform by hundreds of international scientists while the ship drifted along with the ice until September 2020. Or at least, that was the plan of MOSAiC. Covid19 and an extremely rapid transpolar drift made the expedition more… “interesting”. In this overview, we detail the atmospheric observation program:

• The measurement systems from the ship, deployed on the ice, and the crewed and uncrewed flight campaigns;
• What we did where and when, including the covid19-related changes of schedules;
• The “event” measurements: radiosonde sampling of warm air intrusion, storms etc.

And present our first results:

• Record high positive Arctic Oscillation, which contributed to a record ozone hole in the Arctic stratosphere, and to persistent winds that pushed the sea ice and Polarstern more quickly across the Arctic than expected.
• Dynamic (vertical wind structure and momentum transfer to sea ice and ocean) and thermodynamic (warm air masses) influences of more than 20 Arctic cyclones, or storms, of various scales.
• Year-round information on variability of atmospheric composition and aerosol populations in the Central Arctic, especially the relative influences of long-range transport versus local processes. 

This publication is mostly meant as the data paper for all other MOSAiC atmosphere publications to come, so stay tuned for more actual results.

Download the full-text here.