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There is "lockdown". And then there is lockdown.
船只“封鎖”。國家封鎖。
Those who have spent the past weeks allowed out only to exercise and visit the shops
那些在過去幾周只被允許出去鍛煉和逛商店的人
might spare a thought for the passengers and crew of Polarstern (Pole Star), pictured above.
可能會想到上圖中極星號上的乘客和船員。
Polarstern is an icebreaker belonging to the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, in Germany,
極星號是一艘破冰船，所屬德國阿爾弗雷德韋格納極地和海洋研究所，
and her ship's company are in a different class of lockdown entirely. Their vessel is afloat in the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean,
而船上的同伴則完全處于另一種級別的禁閉中。他們的船漂浮在北冰洋的浮冰中，
and communications are so minimal as to preclude phone calls, let alone Zoom. Only pictureless messages and emails are possible.
通訊設備極少，無法打電話，更別提使用Zoom視頻了。能用的只有不帶圖片的短信和郵件。
Polarstern is the location of MOSAIC, the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate.
極星號是北極氣候研究多學科漂移觀測站（MOSAIC）所在地。
She sailed from Tromso, in Norway, on September 20th 2019 and travelled to a point at latitude 85 degrees North.
2019年9月20日，她從挪威特羅姆瑟觸發，航行到北緯85度的一個點。
Here, mimicking the first high-Arctic voyage, made in 1893 by Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer,
模仿挪威探險家弗里德喬夫·南森在1893年進行的第一次高北極航行，
her captain fixed her into an ice floe that carried her along at about 7km/h, courtesy of an ocean current called the transpolar drift stream.
船長把她固定在一塊浮冰上，借助一股被稱為“跨極漂流”的洋流，讓她以每小時7公里的速度向前移動。
Her closest approach to the pole itself, 156km, was on February 24th.
2月24日是她離極點最近的時間，距離為156米。
Things have not, however, gone according to plan. The idea was for a revolving cast of 300 scientists each to spend two months on board.
然而，事情并沒有按照計劃進行。原計劃是讓300名科學家輪班各在船上待兩個月。
This would have permitted specialists in the study of different seasons and conditions—winter or summer ice, say—to be there at the appropriate moment,
這樣就可以讓研究不同季節和環境的專家在合適的時間到達那里，比如冬或夏冰，
and would also have had the benefit of protecting everyone from cabin fever.
而且還能保護每個人遠離幽居病。
A planned rotation in April had, though, to be cancelled.
不過，計劃在4月進行的輪換已被取消。
Norway, the new shipmates' intended departure point, had closed its borders in response to covid-19.
為應對covid-19疫情，新船員的預定出發地——挪威已經關閉了邊境。
That left the original company with no liberation date. Eventually, two transfer ships with the newbies on board sailed from Bremerhaven, in Germany.
這使得原來的同伴沒有了解放之日。最終，兩艘載著這些新船員的轉運船從德國不萊梅港啟航。
And on May 17th Polarstern broke free from her icy prison and headed south to meet them off the coast of Svalbard.
5月17日，極星號從冰封的監獄中掙脫出來，向南前往斯瓦爾巴特群島海岸與他們會合
On June 8th she began the return trip, and arrived back at her original piece of ice (which had moved) on June 17th,
6月8日，她開始返航之旅，6月17日，她回到了原來那塊冰的位置（這塊冰已經移動了），
to resume drifting with it until she breaks free in September, in the Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard.
繼續隨它漂流，直到9月，在格陵蘭島和斯瓦爾巴特群島之間的弗拉姆海峽獲得解放。
The coronavirus has not changed MOSAIC's objectives, however.
但疫情沒有改變MOSAIC的目標。
These are to study the structure of Arctic ice and how this changes with the seasons,
MOSAIC的目標是研究北極冰的結構以及其結構如何隨著季節而變化，
and to look at the air above that ice, the water below and the creatures living in that water—and, indeed, in the ice itself. All of these are interlinked.
并觀察冰層上的空氣、冰下的水以及水中生活著的生物——事實上，還有生活在冰里的生物。所有這些都是相互聯系的。
They also link the place with the wider world, for the Arctic is both a recorder and a driver of climate change.
他們還將北極與更廣闊的世界聯系起來，因為北極既是氣候變化的記錄者，也是氣候變化的推動者。
It is a recorder because the visible difference between ice and water,
它是記錄者，因為冰和水的明顯區別
and the obvious relationship between global temperatures and the amount of ice around,
以及全球氣溫和周圍冰量之間的明顯關系，
mean together that the ice's waxing and waning shows in an easily graspable way how things are changing.
兩者都意味著冰的消長變化簡易地表明了事物是如何變化的。
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