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| Polar bears seen from Polarstern |
It's very still in the ice. The heavy white plates dampen any waves, and it's not even that windy today. From my spot behind a shipping container on the roof of the bridge, I can see out to the horizon. Ice floes closed in on us as we transited north, so it is white everywhere. The frozen landscape feels somehow emptier than open water ever does, even though there's more texture there. In the distance, the floating ice merges into a cloudy, reflective sky.
On the decks below me, I can see people emerging from various exterior doors and gesturing to one another. A student makes a bee-line for the bridge. My grad student, Kharis, is wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and sandals, her crossed arms the only protection she has from the cold. When she spots me on the upper deck, she starts jumping up and down. Friends, this is how I know I'm getting to be a seasoned Arctic scientist. The flurry of activity could only mean one thing – a polar bear somewhere in the distance – but the first thought in my mind was "I should go get Kharis a jacket."
There was indeed a polar bear – two actually, a mother and a cub. They lumbered across ice floes several hundred meters behind the ship, disappearing behind icy ridges and re-emerging some seconds later. The cub was very interested in the ship and tried standing up to get a better view. To him, we must have seemed like a landing party from outer space, the only orange-and-blue island in his otherwise monochrome world.
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| The solar eclipse |
Later in the day, we witnessed another rare site: a solar eclipse. The hundred or so of us on board are some of the only people on Earth to see this eclipse, which is only visible at high latitude. At just the right time, a small hole formed in the cloud layer, allowing the crescent-shaped sliver of sun to shine through. From our position, the sun was about 80% covered. It looked like the moon except much, much brighter. One of the other scientists realized our standard-issue AWI polarized sunglasses filtered out the brightest rays and allowed us to view the eclipse safely. As it turns out, the sunglasses also made fantastic filters for photographs.
In the evening, the polar bears returned – probably different ones, actually. A mother and two cubs rolled around in the snow, even closer to the ship than they had been in the morning. We watched them from the stern while a mooring was recovered on deck.
Never in my life did I think I would get to see five polar bears and a solar eclipse in the same day. I am so grateful to be up here at the top of the world. It was truly a magnificent day.
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