With a deep breath, Sandro Dahlke releases a white weather balloon nearly as tall as himself from our ship’s deck and toward the Arctic sky. The helium-filled orb shoots upward while the radiosonde—an instrument package attached to the balloon’s tail that will monitor the weather—whips wildly in the wind. We are far north in the Arctic Ocean, onboard the German icebreaker Polarstern, and the wind immediately sweeps the balloon toward the starboard side as it rises—a worrying prospect for Dahlke. Typically, there would be few obstacles to encounter on the icy ocean. But today we are tethered to a Russian icebreaker, the Akademik Fedorov, which looms over our smaller one, and he is concerned the balloon might hit the neighboring ship.
Image: Sandro Dahlke releases a weather balloon into the air onboard the Polarstern research icebreaker, which is frozen in place in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. Credit: Shannon Hall
