The 16th Chinese Arctic Ocean Expedition Returns, Achieving Breakthroughs in Multiple Results

China's 16th Arctic Ocean expedition team returned to Shanghai on September 30 aboard Xuelong and Xuelong 2, completing nearly three months of Arctic Ocean expedition work. Organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources, this expedition focused on key areas such as integrated survey and monitoring, frontier scientific research, and international cooperation, with both the expedition scale and total task volume reaching new highs. According to reports, the scientific expedition team made multiple advances in marine ecology, geophysics, and communication technology. In the Canada Basin area, researchers discovered an intensified intrusion of warm Pacific subsurface water, and observed a greater number of juvenile polar cod and prey organisms in the highlatitude ice zone; in the eastern section of the Gakkel Ridge, they also identified a new massive hydrothermal plume field. At the same time, the expedition team completed communication tests of domestically developed satellite broadband terminals, enabling video calls and data transmission between highlatitude and southernlatitude stations. This expedition also carried out cooperation with Russia, Germany, France, Thailand, and the Hong Kong region of China. Xuelong 2 provided icebreaking escort and resupply support for France's Tara Polar Station, and the related joint survey also provided a scientific basis for compliance with international fisheries agreements. The organizer said that through coordinated operations by the two ships, the expedition team completed multiple ice station and buoy deployment tasks, accumulating data for subsequent Arctic Ocean observations and international polar research.