The IcePod

In the first season, Sara Pasqualetto and Kirstin Werner of the International Polar Prediction Coordination Office invited participants from the MOSAiC expedition who spent a year drifting through Arctic sea ice on the German research icebreaker RV Polarstern. Guests on the podcast were able to share details from the MOSAiC expedition about their scientific work on the ice, as well as about life on board, insights that would otherwise have been left untold. The episodes were broadcast on the community radio station Radio Weser TV in Bremen and Bremerhaven and are still available on Spotify and other podcast platforms.

In the second season of The IcePod, Kirstin Werner continues to invite podcast guests to bring along their favorite songs and get to know the guests a little better that way. In particular, the second season is about learning more about a range of activities in the Arctic and Antarctic that require good forecasts of environmental conditions. At high latitudes, reliable weather and sea ice forecasts are key to safe operations. However, data on weather and sea ice at the poles are still relatively sparse because these areas are difficult to access. As a result, accurate forecasts are still lacking in these regions. In Season 2 of The IcePod, Kirstin talks to Drift+Noise Polar Services, a start-up that turns forecast data into applied services. You'll also hear from Hurtigruten, a major coastal ferry service and cruise company in Norway, an Antarctic expedition leader, and a helicopter pilot working on Polarstern. Stay tuned and watch out for the next episodes of The IcePod.

The IcePod is produced by the International Coordination Office of the Polar Prediction Project, a project initiated by the World Meteorological Organization to improve weather and sea ice forecasting in the polar regions. For any question or feedback, please contact polarprediction@gmail.com.