"The about 100 researchers that on Tuesday set foot in Tromsø, Norway, will hardly be able to recognize the life they left in December."

"It has been an extreme voyage for the people that now are making their way back to civilization. In early December last year, they set out from the north Norwegian town onboard Russian icebreaker “Kapitan Dranitsyn” and several days later reached the “Polarstern”, the 118 meter long ice-class research vessel that is drifting across the Arctic as part of great research expedition MOSAiC.

On 86 degrees North, about 270 kilometers from the North Pole, a swap of crew and research teams was made across the ice between the two vessels. Since then, the  researchers have been locked up in the highest Arctic, isolated from the rest of the world.

Not everything has proceeded according to the carefully prepared plans of the  year-long MOSAiC expedition. Among the challenges has been the shifts of expedition crews."

Atle Staalesen reports for the Barents Observer March 30, 2020. [2]