Tara Polar Station is a French drifting scientific research platform designed for long-term expeditions in the Arctic Ocean, operated by the Tara Ocean Foundation and its collaborators.
Development The station is financed and designed by the Tara Foundation and was built in Cherbourg, France, from May 2023 to April 2025, after 5 years of design. It was christened in Lorient, France, on 24 April 2025. The project has its origins in the Arctic expedition of the schooner Tara, conducted between September 2006 and January 2008.
Design The station was designed by the architect Oliver Petit and will be able to work in temperatures down to . It has a length of , a width of , and it can accommodate a crew of 12 people in winter and up to 20 people in summer. Its hull is made from 20-mm-thick aluminium sheets. The station has a 1.6 m diameter moon pool, which can be used for underwater sampling using CTD-rosette, remotely operated vehicles, and autonomous underwater vehicles. The ship has a living area of 400 square meters and is divided into four levels: (1) bridge deck with wheelhouse and captain’s office, (2) main deck with entryway, sickbay, sauna, galley, and mess, (3) lower deck with twelve crew cabins and six laboratories, and (4) lower deck with auxiliary compartment (diesel and kerosene storage) and the engine/propulsion room. The station is equipped with solar panels, a wind turbine, and biodiesel generators.
Research Tara Polar Station supports a long-term multidisciplinary programme studying the coupled atmosphere, sea ice and ocean of the central Arctic Ocean. The Tara Polaris programme, planned from 2026 to 2046, consists of repeated year-long drifts covering all seasons, allowing seasonal and interannual variability to be distinguished from longer-term environmental changes. Research includes observations of meteorology, clouds, aerosols and trace gases; snow cover, sea-ice properties and dynamics; ocean temperature, salinity and mixing; and under-ice light, nutrients, biodiversity and microbial activity. The programme also studies carbon cycling and the transport of contaminants such as mercury and plastics through the Arctic environment.
Expeditions Tara Polar Station was tested in ice conditions in July 2025 during the CONTRASTS expedition. It left Longyearbyen, Svalbard, on 4 July, and sailed towards sea ice together with the research vessel Polarstern. There are at least 10 planned Arctic expeditions along the Transpolar Drift, following the route of Nansen's Fram expedition, Soviet and Russian drifting stations, and the MOSAiC Expedition.
Arctic Drift Expedition (2026–2027) Tara Polar Station began its first long-term Arctic expedition in July 2026, departing from Lorient for a multinational scientific mission across the Arctic Ocean. The expedition studies biodiversity and climate change and includes researchers from twelve countries. The station entered the sea ice north of Severnaya Zemlya on 1 September and reached its selected ice floe, at approximately 82.4° N, 155.05° E, on 9 September. It was moored to the floe on 13 September, beginning its drift across the Arctic Ocean. The drift is expected to last 350–500 days along the Transpolar Drift towards the Fram Strait, with completion planned for late 2027.
See also Drifting ice station Tara expedition List of research vessels by country
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External links
Tara has found the conditions of the North Pole in Finland. Yle. 13 January 2026.