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Tara Polar Station Sets Out From Lorient on First Long-Term Arctic Drift

The specially built floating lab will be frozen into Arctic pack ice to gather continuous year-round data that scientists say can close a major gap in observations and improve climate models.

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La Tara Polar station, observatoire scientifique en aluminium capable de dériver sur la banquise, le 1er octobre 2024 à Cherbourg
Avec la mission Tara Polaris I, « nous allons pouvoir séparer ce qui provient de phénomènes naturels récurrents et d’un changement structurel profond », explique Marcel Babin.

Overview

  • Tara Polaris I departed Lorient on Sunday and has begun a escorted transit toward the Arctic with planners expecting to embed the station in pack ice in early September.
  • Once frozen into the ice the floating laboratory will drift for an expected 350 to 500 days toward the Fram Strait, carrying teams that will work through polar night and extreme cold.
  • The mission aims to collect more than 10,000 samples from the sea, including probes to 2,000 meters, plus atmosphere and sea-ice cavities to document biodiversity and environmental change.
  • The igloo-shaped aluminum lab is built to resist sea-ice pressure and temperatures down to −52°C, and crews were medically and psychologically screened, trained for cohesion, and taught polar-bear defense.
  • The first drift is funded at about €6 million and links 30 research centers in 12 countries as the start of a planned series of ten missions from 2026 to 2045 to create a multi-decade Arctic record.