An extraordinary encounter took place in the middle of the Arctic Ocean: the Tara Polar Station met up with the Chinese research icebreaker Xue Long 2. Together, the two vessels ploughed their way through the sea ice before Tara reached her ice floe for the planned one-year drift through the central Arctic.
The rendezvous took place on 8 September 2026 north of the New Siberian Islands. The Xue Long 2 met the Tara Polar Station at the agreed meeting point and subsequently assisted her on her way through increasingly dense pack ice. The joint drone footage impressively documents this unusual encounter.
For Tara, this support was particularly valuable. Unlike the Xue Long 2, the Tara Polar Station is not an icebreaker. Rather, it was designed to be encircled by sea ice and then drift through the Arctic Ocean with the natural ice flow. During the mission, international research teams are studying the atmosphere, sea ice, the ocean and Arctic ecosystems.
On 9 September at 10 am, Tara finally reached its intended position at 82°24′ North and 155°03′ East. There, the team selected a suitable ice floe. The polar station is now to be frozen into the ice and will drift across the central Arctic with the floe.
The encounter with the Xue Long 2 also symbolises international cooperation in polar research. With the Franco-European Tara mission and the Chinese Arctic expedition, two major research programmes came face to face in the pack ice.
Heiner Kubny, PolarJournal