Introducing ‘Polardex’

Polardex is a new online platform for polar infrastructure and logistics discovery and planning developed by the EPB and partners.
To explore Polardex please visit www.polardex.org.
Polardex includes detailed information about polar research infrastructure in the Arctic and Antarctic, including field facilities (stations, camps, laboratories, weather stations, shelters), vessels and aircraft. Polardex compiles information on their facilities and capabilities for science, as well as links to further details relating to access, ongoing science and data.
In addition to infrastructures, Polardex give details of logistical plans for research in the polar regions, allowing scientists and managers to identify potential collaborations and opportunities for deploying equipment or collecting samples. With Polardex, duplication of logistics can be avoided, saving time, resources and environmental impacts. The Planned Routes section, a development of SOOS’ DueSouth database now fully integrated with Polardex, gives details of scientific research cruises as well as tourist routes in the Southern Ocean that could offer ships of opportunity to scientists. Polardex’s functionalities all for planned routes or field campaigns by sea, land and air in both the Arctic and Antarctic.
Additional features of Polardex include the ability to subscribe to updates on logistical plans, and to explore infrastructures in a map-based viewer with multiple data and information layers. In the coming months we will continue to develop Polardex with new infrastructure and logistics information from partners around the world.
Polardex is the result of the integration of the European Polar Infrastructure Database, developed by the EPB and EU-PolarNet, and SOOS’ DueSouth database, which the EPB has hosted since 2021.
The development of Polardex has been a truly collaborative affair, with many partners contributing input to its design and development, as well as provision of the information presented in it. Polardex’s development has been led by the EPB’s Action Group on Infrastructure, Chaired by Miki Ojeda. Partners in Polardex’s development and contributors of information are the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS), the Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS), the International Network for Terrestrial Research and Monitoring in the Arctic (INTERACT), EU-PolarNet 2, the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP), the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), Isaaffik, the Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium (ARICE), EUROFLEETS, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The Polardex application was built by Blue Lobster IT Ltd.

[@SOOS-Ocean]

Congratulations to the launch! Polardex will be a very valuable tool for the polar community! Polardex will be extremely useful for finding potential collaborators and make it easier to coordinate between different nations. The synergistic effects could even help to produce more scientific output, help nations without polar vessels to collect data and also reduce the carbon footprint of expeditions in the polar regions. SOOS is proud that our database DueSouth is included in the greater context of Polardex and we thank everyone, who made this possible!