It is the only way to have the next turnover in on-board staff take place, said Rex, who leads the MOSAiC expedition, which stands for Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate.

“We are happy that we found this solution,” he added.

In mid-May, the icebreaker will restart its engine after months of drifting and sail to the edge of the ice in the Arctic Ocean. There, it will meet the German research ships Sonne and Maria S Meria, which will have the new 100-member team on board.

“We are lucky that the Polarstern is already so far on this side of the North Pole,” Rex said.

After the staff is replaced, the Polarstern will return to its ice floe and proceed with the research work.

“We will have a three-week interruption in the readings,” Rex said. “But in light of the coronavirus crisis, that is a relatively mild impact for us.”

The Polarstern had set sail in September 2019 for its year-long Arctic expedition.

Initially, the on-board team was supposed to be replaced very two months, but the flights planned for April could not be carried out because of coronavirus-related travel restrictions, Rex said.

The Arctic is the region where global warming has been the most rapid. The Polarstern’s drift is being billed as a scientific first.