Frozen, not stirred: Inside polar explorer Romain Troublé’s Arctic winter quest

Romain Troublé won the Shackleton Medal for the Protection of the Polar Regions for leading the Tara mission to study the Central Arctic Ocean.

The Tara polar research station will let a dozen scientists drift with sea ice for over 500 days, including two crew changes.

Troublé is executive director of the French Tara Ocean Foundation and helped conceptualize the floating lab with a moon pool for sample collection.

The mission aims to study life, climate, and ocean dynamics in the Central Arctic, which is ice-covered for six to eight months annually.

Troublé said there is a sense of urgency to describe the region before it changes, as satellite or summer-only surveys are insufficient.