After forty-two days at sea, the Xuelong-2 Polar Icebreaker docked in Hobart, Australia. Among the 97 expedition members on deck were three from Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Fudan University: Professor ZHOU Wen and PhD students WANG Hao and LIU Bingkuan, all returning from the ice. 

They had been working in Prydz Bay during the austral autumn—a key site for observing the energy exchange among the ocean, ice, and atmosphere. Yet, its inner workings remain a black box to science. The team ventured there to see how the world breathes.

With support from the 42nd Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) , Professor Zhou’s team conducted systematic ship-based atmospheric observations and upper-air soundings, aiming to fill key knowledge gaps in air–sea interactions in Prydz Bay, and their impacts on ecosystem evolution.

The work followed the clock. Every six hours, at midnight, dawn, noon, and dusk, a weather balloon was released. The wind was biting, the deck was slick with ice, and the ship rolled in the swells. Clad in heavy suits and tethered by safety ropes, they launched 130 balloons into the sky. Each one rose twenty-five kilometers to map the vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, air pressure and wind speed.

They watched the sea transform. They saw the water turn to grease ice, then needle ice, and finally “pancake ice”. As the ship broke the floes, the ice flipped against the hull, revealing the thickness of the frozen world.

WANG Hao studied the color of sea ice. He realized that color affects how ice melts, an in-situ observation that inspired him to incorporate this factor into AI models for weather prediction.

Sea ice observed during the expedition

Even in the biting Antarctic autumn, life stirs beneath the ice. The team tracked everything from great whales to wandering albatrosses, mapping this fragile frontier and gathering data for Antarctic ecosystem studies.

 Antarctic fauna captured during the expedition

Aboard the vessel, Professor Zhou gave a lecture on “Antarctic Weather and Climate” during “Antarctic University”，a long-standing tradition on China’s Antarctic expeditions, where team members onboard give lectures to each other across disciplines, which sparked deep insights among the crew as well as promoted polar science literacy.

Antarctica University, Professor ZHOU Wen (left) and Academician JIAN Zhimin (right)

“A weather balloon ascends from the deck, across from the fierce westerlies to reach the height of twenty thousand meters above. The sounding signal returns bearing not only data, but also the insight and enduring promise of Chinese scientists to the Antarctic.” Zhou said, “This is the restless pursuit of atmospheric scientists.”

Presented by Fudan University Media Center

Writer: CHENG Yuting

Proofreader: Mahek

Editor: WANG Mengqi, LI Yijie