What did China’s research vessel Xuelong accomplish during the 16th Arctic expedition—including when and where it established a record 12 site ice station network, why thicker ice north of 82°N was selected, what more than 30 buoys and the multidisciplinary observations were inte

Xuelong 2 was scheduled to supplement the network near 84°N with six short-term ice stations and one long-term station, undertaking more than 20 tasks such as buoy deployments, snow/ice-core/under-ice-water sampling, sea-ice remote sensing, atmospheric profiling, and under-ice hydrographic observations.

In roughly six hours, researchers used an ice-core drill and chainsaw to cut out a 1.3-meter-thick, 1.2 m × 1.2 m sea-ice block. They will test its mechanical properties under Arctic conditions, adding to the sea-ice sample archive and supplying experimental data relevant to the structural design of next-generation polar ships.

The expedition also built an unattended Arctic observation network and tested/deployed Chinese marine-observation systems. The shallow-water and deep-water ice-based profilers and ice-drift buoys used most extensively averaged over 90% domestic content; mature domestic equipment enabled large-array deployments and networked automated monitoring.

Its ecological unmanned ice station was the system’s first Arctic demonstration. By integrating acoustic, optical, and electrical sensors and continuously observing the atmosphere, ice, ocean, and ecology, it is designed to track under-ice biological processes across the seasonal light transition—helping reveal how organisms persist through polar night and respond when polar day returns.