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The TRANSDRIFT VI expedition took place from April 4 to May 13, 1999. Research area was the Laptev Sea off the East Siberian coast. It was the first time that a German-Russian expedition carried out investigations in the Laptev Sea during the winter months. The town of Tiksi, located at the Laptev Sea coast in Yakutia, Sakha Republic, served as base camp for the 25 scientists from Tiksi, Kiel, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Freiberg and Hamburg.

Helicopters took them to the working area c. 300 km north of Tiksi in the Laptev Sea to carry out their interdisciplinary investigations. Temperatures of up to -25°C and strong winds provided severe conditions during the works on the ice.

The object of the studies was the Laptev Sea polynya, an ice-free expanse of the ocean, which is up to 8 km wide and several hundreds of kilometers long. It is located at the edge of the land-fast ice. Large volumes of young ice form at the surface of the polynya, ice that eventually becomes incorporated into the Transpolar Drift Stream.

The research team carried out measurements within the sea ice, in the water column and at the seafloor and took a fair amount of samples.

A highly sensitive microprobe for measurements of the vertical temperature distribution in the seafloor was used at all stations. Developed for the TRANSDRIFT VI expedition, it was especially designed to be used from the ice. A comparison of these measurements with measurements, carried out during the TRANSDRIFT V expedition in 1998, discloses seasonal variations of the temperatures at the seafloor.

The weekly reports can be found here.

 

The participants of the expedition:

Sea-ice studies

• Sergey Kovalev, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute
• Konstantin Tyshko, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute

Oceanography

• Vladimir Churun, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute
• Igor Dmitrenko, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute
• Sergey Kirillov, Hydrometeorological University St. Petersburg

Geochemistry

• Iouri Chtcherbakov, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute
• Jens Hoelemann, GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences
• Miroslav Nitishinsky, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute
• Sergey Pivovarov, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute

Biology

• Ekaterina Abramova, Lena Delta Reserve
• Alexandr Gukov, Lena Delta Reserve
• Klaus Meiners, Institute for Polar Ecology
• Vladimir Pozdnyakov, International Biological Station "Lena-Nordenskiold"
• Anette Scheltz, Institute for Polar Ecology
• Michael Schmid, Institute for Polar Ecology
• Diana Solovyeva, Lena Delta Reserve

Paleoceanography

• Martin Antonow, Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg
• Sven-Ole Bude, GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences
• Bertram Heinze, GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences
• Heidemarie Kassens, GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences
• Svenja Kobabe, Hamburg University
• Thomas Mueller-Lupp, GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences
• Martina Petschner, GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences
• Ekaterina Taldenkova, MoscowLomonosov State University