AURORA BOREALIS is technically unique. It is designed as a combination of a heavy icebreaker, a deep-sea drilling ship and a multi-purpose research vessel. To date, no comparable facility for year-round polar expeditions is available worldwide.
Dr. Bonnie Wolff-Boenisch
Alfred Wegener Institute
Executive Manager of the ERICON-AB project
A New Dimension in Polar Research
The Research Icebreaker AURORA BOREALIS will be the most advanced polar research vessel in the world with a multi-functional role of deep-sea drilling and supporting climate/environmental research and decision support for stakeholder governments for the next 35-40 years. The new technological features will include dynamic positioning in closed sea-ice cover, advanced ice-forecasting and management with autonomous, multiple helicopter support and the deployment and operation of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) from the twin moon-pools.
The Project ERICON- AURORA BOREALIS is supported by the European Commission under Framework Programme 7 Contract ERAC 211796.
