Environment & biodiversity
- Location:
Arctic - Sponsor:
Camille Besse - Grant:
€150,000 to the Board Directors of 18 June 2019
Project leader
A little-known continent, the Arctic is nonetheless indicative of the climate crisis. In recent decades, this unique ecosystem has come under increasing threat from global warming and human pollution. The speed of change and the fact that what happens in the Arctic impacts the whole planet makes it a real sentinel.
The Tara Océan Foundation, whose schooner has already ventured to the Arctic, has committed itself to the construction of a drifting polar scientific station: the Tara Polar Station. Designed for observation and scientific research in the Arctic, this ship will carry out one mission after another from 2025 to 2046, remaining stuck in the ice 90% of the time.
On these many successive drifts, the Tara Polar Station will embark scientists from all over the world. Climatologists, biologists, physicists, glaciologists, oceanographers, artists, doctors, journalists and sailors will work together to make observations and carry out experiments on site.
3 leading scientists
The Tara Polar Station coordination committee is led by Lee Karp-Boss, oceanographer at the University of Maine, Chris Bowler, biologist at the ENS and the CNRS, and Marcel Babin, oceanographer at the University of Laval and the CNRS.
A solid network of scientific partners
The partners include the CNRS, the French Polar Institute, Laval University in Quebec, the University of Maine in the United States, the CEA, the Swiss Polar Institute, the Alfred Wegener Institute, the Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, the Arctic Research Center (Denmark), the CNES, etc.
10 consecutive missions until 2046
18 people in summer
18 consecutive months of mission
Tara Polar Station's explorations will refine weather model forecasts for Europe up to 2050 and the consequences of climate change on the way our planet functions. These results could be used to improve policies concerning the governance of the Arctic and the World Ocean.
A public-private programme, the Tara Polar Station is co-financed by the French government as part of France 2030 and by the European Union - Next Generation EU. The Veolia Foundation is supporting the project and providing technical expertise in water treatment and sanitation on board the ship.