Rosario Nania and Ombretta Pinazza report on a campaign of measurements carried out by the EEE collaboration with the Polarquest2018 mission, recording data up to the latitude of 82°07’N: the PolarquEEEst experiment.

La Sezione di Cuneo della Associazione Radioamatori Italiani, nel 90° anniversario della tragedia della aeronave ITALIA al Polo Nord, ha nominato il Signor Giuseppe Biagi, nipote dell’eroico radiotelegrafista della spedizione polare Giuseppe Biagi, Socio Onorario della Sezione in riconoscimento della sua appassionata ricerca storica svolta a ricostruzione di quella lontana sfortunata spedizione polare.

On Nov 2 project leader Paola Catapano and chief scientist Luisa Cifarelli presented the expedition and its preliminary scientific results at the Genova Science Festival

Il 22 agosto 2018, alle 21:30 ora locale, la barca a vela Nanuq impegnata nella spedizione Polarquest2018 ha completato con successo la circumnavigazione dell’arcipelago delle Svalbard, chiudendo il cerchio al largo di Longyearbyen (Isfjord), dove la tappa Svalbard della spedizione aveva preso inizio il 4 agosto, percorrendo 1500 miglia e raggiungendo le propaggini esterne della banchisa a 82°07’ N, alle 16h50 UTC del 13 agosto.

 On 22 August 2018, 21:30 local time Polarquest2018’s sailboat Nanuq has successfully completed the circumnavigation of the Svalbard archipelago closing the loop in Isfjord, just outside Longyearbyen, where the Svalbard leg of the expedition started on August 4, logging 1500 nautical miles and reaching the outer boundary of the ice shelf at 82°07 N at 16h50 UTC on August 13.

After more than a week without any other human encounter, we had stumbled across ALBEDO, the Row Around Svalbard project of two Swedish kayakers.

There seems to be no halt to our crazily-tight sequence of exceptional events. Ever since we crossed the 80th parallel, in both directions, it has been non-stop!

Mike Struik (PolarQuest 2018 Technical Coordinator) and Gianluca Casagrande (Italian Geographical Society and European University of Rome) performed an expeditive aero-photogrammetric survey of Alpiniøya.

Alpiniøya: 1 KM di spiaggia di fine sabbia bianca, sassi e roccia granitici e acqua cristallina da cui fanno capolino famiglie di trichechi.

I once said that time is different on board. I would like to rectify: time is different at the poles, in general. It’s like it stops. It’s like everything is slower. You feel closer to the past.

We followed the exact trajectory of the Red Tent drift, adjusted to its distance from the lost airship envelope collecting data from the sea bottom all along for over 5 hours.

On 13 August 2018, the PolarQuest team arrived at the crash area of the Airship ITALIA: 81°14 N 25°25 E. These were the coordinates sent out by ITALIA’s survivors in their first SOS message, 24 hours after the crash.

We have seen many arctic animals on our expedition so far. Polar bears, reindeers, walruses… but ones whoe surprised us most were the belugas spotted at the Recherche Fjord. Their enchanting and distracting dance preluded Nanuq being stranded for 12 hours… with its daggerboard cut in two!

Once you leave the Spitsberg island, the largest of the archipelago, for The North East island, or Nordaustlandet, everything changes. It is remarkably colder than it is on these coasts, out of the reach of the warm Gulf Stream.

PolarQuest2018 is not only a scientific mission – it also features a great deal of adventure! We are searching for quite a few lost objects. Some are as big and as important as airships, but others are smaller and – at least to their owners – equally as important. When we were at the Italian research station a few days ago in Ny Alesund, Stefano Ventura, a permafrost researcher from CNR Florence, tasked us with a new search as soon as he learned we were sailing North.

We left in the full sun, and the shining beauty of the glacier all around us… except for a huge ship, the World Cruiser, blocking our way out of the fjord and surrounded by a swarm of kajaks and zodiacs. This is the kind of tourism you do not want in such an unspoilt and critical area of our planet.

We cast off from Ny Alesund harbour at 10.25 UTC while the big cruiser Hurtigruten entered the harbour with its load of tourists. Another consequence of global warming is the increase of tourists to the Svalbard archipelago.

Appena atterrati a Ny Alesund gli occhi di tutti si dirigono verso quel pilone d’acciaio ormai un po’ arrugginito a cui venne ancorato il dirigibile Italia prima della partenza. Si trova sulla baia dei re dove si erge Ny Alesund la città più a nord del mondo, sede della Ricerca scientifica in artico per ben 10 nazioni tra cui anche l’Italia con la base “Dirigibile Italia” del Centro Nazionale di Ricerca italiano.

Every second, each square centimetre of us and our Earth is hit by about 10,000 cosmic rays. These charged subatomic particles have a profound impact on our climate, but had never been measured in the High Arctic at sea level… until now!

You could feel the excitement of the crew, who were finally going to relax after the one week crossing between Iceland and Svalbard. But suddenly, we felt a big shock under the boat.

After crossing the Greenland Sea for 10 days and exploring the southernmost part of the Svalpard archipelago, Polarquest2018’s self-sustaining sailboat Nanuq has arrived in Longyearbyen, the capital of Spitzbergen, according to plan.

Dopo aver attraversato il mare di Groenlandia e aver esplorato la parte più a sud dell’arcipelago delle Svalbard, Nanuq è arrivata a Longyearbyen, concludendo entro i tempi stabiliti, la prima tappa della spedizione di scienza e esplorazione Polarquest2018.

Unfortunately, plastic is all too common out here. We have seen, during our shifts, a bit less than 10 big pieces of floating plastic in 7 days. The probability of encountering plastic so frequently out in the open Arctic sea, so far from sources of pollution, should be really thin.

Nanuq safely arrived in the Svalbard archipelago today! The team is two full days ahead of schedule, thanks to strong winds in their favour during the voyage.

Safiria Buono sends a dispatch from Nanuq: Time is different on the boat. No night, no day, no meal hours. Everything is at the rhythm of our shifts.

At 18.35 local time in Iceland, Nanuq cast off! The crew will now embark on the first leg of the PolarQuest mission: a ten-day trip on rough seas to Longyearbyen, Svalbard archipelago.

All 10 PolarQuest2018 crew members taking part in the Iceland to Svalbard leg of the trip are on board. They are currently are sailing in the fjord for a full briefing given by co-skipper Mathilde Gallinelli.

Extreme Adventure. Extreme Exploration. Extreme Science. Join B&G onboard Nanuq the self-sufficient sailing boat, as a specialist team face the elements in one of the most beautiful and extreme environments on the planet #SailTheElements

Polarquest2018 expedition members have now reached Isafjordùr, in North West Iceland, to board Nanuq

The European University of Rome will participate in the PolarQuest 2018 expedition, in the Arctic region.

Special guest, Princess Elettra Marconi, daughter of the inventor of the wireless radio, Guglielmo Marconi, joined the meeting with the descendants of the ITALIA Airship crew members held in Rome last July 7-8.

Less than a month before casting off from Iceland towards the Arctic sea, members of the Polarquest2018 expedition on board sailboat Nanuq will meet the press in order to present the route, the objectives, the details of the expedition and answer any questions.

Polarquest2018 scientist Frederic Gillet has a special mission on board Nanuq. He will install special sensors to measure the quantity of PCBs in the air.

After 27 days on the pack ice, ITALIA airship survivors know they’ve been sighted by Italian Air Force waterplane Savoia Marchetti, commanded by captain Maddalena.

Exciting times for Polarquest2018! A series of exceptional events last week launched the PolarQuest team into full “expedition mode”. Paola Catapano and Mike Striuk were invited by our partner NORBIT Subsea to attend an intense field training in Trondheim, Norway on the use of their latest 3D multibeam sonar that we will use North of Svalbard to search for any remains of the ITALIA Airship.

On this date, 90 years ago, at 8:55 pm, stranded radio-telegraphist Giuseppe Biagi sent off his hourly SOS. In celebrtion of this anniversary, Polarquest2018 interviewed friend and geodesy researcher, Vincenza Tornatore.

23 high school students from Norway, Italy and Switzerland arrived at CERN today to take part in a unique cosmic project: the assembly of a PolarquEEEst detector. This special device is designed to catch the intense flow of cosmic rays that bombard the Earth above 80°N.

Polarquest2018 has partnered with three prestigious Italian institutions to commemorate the 90th anniversary of this pioneering flight over the North Pole with three events open to the press and the public.

Today, PolarQuest celebrates the first polar flight in history – the first of a series of celebrations during this special month in the history of polar exploration.

On May 3, 2018 our project leader Paola Catapano presented the Polarquest2018 expedition to a delegation of descendants of the ITALIA Airship crew members at the headquarters of the Italian Geographic Society in Rome.

Today, International #EarthDay, is dedicated to plastic pollution! Learn about a plan to explore a new microplastic island

A small team from Polarquest2018 is now in the Svalbard archipelago to prepare our summer expedition and take part in a photo safari on Snowmobiles in the wild.

The PolarQuest Patch Contest targets European students to design unique creations, that must represent the essence of the Polarquest expedition and the relevance of the Arctic, region where the expedition will take place.

The Geographic Research and Application Laboratory of the European University of Rome will participate in the PolarQuest 2018 expedition to the Arctic region with a geographic observation program by drones.

Laurence de la Ferrière is a record-breaking French mountaineer, explorer and writer.

The explorer held a conference at CERN on Thursday 1 March 2018, where we had the pleasure of meeting him and asking him some questions.

To celebrate its tenth anniversary in February, the Global Seed Vault Vault accepted over 77,000 new samples – taking it over the 1 million deposits mark!

The polar bear is one of the iconic symbols of climate change. It is not insignificant that the name of the boat at the heart of our expedition, Nanuq, means polar bear in “inuit”.

Rivedete Paola Catapano nella diretta dalla nota trasmissione di RAITRE GEO, tutta dedicata alla spedizione Polarquest2018.

We did it! Thanks to your incredible support we have surpassed our $50,000 fundraising goal!

Polarquest successfully completed the Global Giving 2017 Accelerator Campaign by raising over 50 000 USD for its Microplastic in the Arctic campaign and earned a Certificate of Achievement!

PolarQuEEEst is a special detector catching cosmic rays coming from the distant regions of our universe, particularly concentrated at the Poles. One of these special “telescopes” will be on board Nanuq to measure the cosmic ray flow at different latitudes.

We did it! Thanks to your incredible support we have surpassed our $50,000 fundraising goal!

Wow! Thanks to your support, we’ve raised over $,000 on Bonus day Dec. 13 for the PolarQuest2018 campaign!!!

Learn about Polarquest2018’s campaign to assess Microplastic content above 78 degrees latitude.

The beating heart of the Polarquest 2018 project, Nanuq spent last summer in the Arctic waters in Greenland. Scientific coordinator Frédéric Gillet describes the experience.

Skipper and Mission leader Peter Gallinelli discusses Nanuq’s spent last summer in the Arctic waters in Greenland.