PS116 is the first leg of the Antarctic season 2018/19. Polarstern will leave its port of registry, Bremerhaven, on 10 November 2018 and arrive in Cape Town, South Africa, on 11 December 2018. An intermediate port call will take place on 18 November 2018 in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. Here, the majority of the scientific crew will leave the ship. In addition, six more colleagues will join the cruise. Polarstern will remain at the port of Las Palmas for three days in order to carry out 3D photo and Laser imaging of the ship’s interior. Ship time will be allocated for calibration of the echosounding systems by means of a sound velocity profiler and deployment of the underway-CTD (section Bremerhaven – Las Palmas). After leaving Las Palmas, a combined launch and recovery system (LARS) and depressor system will be tested. Furthermore, five floats will be deployed on the journey to Cape Town. Scientific activities during PS116 cwill omprise three different field of activities: training of early career scientists at the echosounding system of Polarstern (Leg Bremerhaven – Las Palmas), scientific en-route measurements and sampling, and activities and maintenance of logistics and IT department.
Link to cruise report: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/48338/1/ExpeditionsprogrammPS116.pdf
