Episode of long-running PBS series focuses on MOSAiC expedition
On October 13, the PBS science series “Nova” aired “Arctic Drift,” the story of the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition.
The hourlong “Nova” episode is a version of a documentary film originally produced for a German broadcaster. Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute led the MOSAiC expedition from September 2019 to October 2020.
Researchers went to the central Arctic to study the atmosphere, sea ice, ocean, ecosystem, and biogeochemistry in a part of the world warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet.
More than 20 countries participated in MOSAiC. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) was one of the first funding agencies to commit to the expedition by approving a proposal for deployment of an Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility during the campaign.
The ARM user facility deployed more than 50 instruments for MOSAiC. Most of them operated on an icebreaker that froze into and drifted with an ice floe through the central Arctic. Other instruments collected data out on the ice.
The “Nova” episode featured interviews with 11 MOSAiC participants, including expedition leader Markus Rex and co-coordinator Matthew Shupe, who was also the principal investigator for the ARM Mobile Facility deployment.
“We’re going into a frontier, really. The Arctic is still a frontier.”
“Making scientific observations in the Arctic is very difficult,” said Shupe, who received funding for some of his MOSAiC research activities through DOE’s Atmospheric System Research (ASR). “Relative to the rest of the globe, we have very few observations of the Arctic system, especially in the wintertime. We’re going into a frontier, really. The Arctic is still a frontier.”
After finding a floe thick enough to sustain their mission, MOSAiC team members officially embarked on their research. “Arctic Drift” documents the team’s scientific and logistical successes, including the collection of 150 terabytes of data. The episode also explores challenges faced by the team in the harsh, remote environment.
You can watch the full “Arctic Drift” episode on the “Nova” website. The episode is also available on demand through streaming services, including the PBS Passport video library for PBS station members, and satellite and cable providers. Check your local listings for additional airings on PBS.
# # #ARM is a DOE Office of Science user facility operated by nine DOE national laboratories.