India, July 17 -- How does one study an ocean that disappears for large parts of the year?

For about six to eight months, the Central Arctic vanishes under about 6 ft of ice. Conditions are so extreme that the region has been nicknamed a polar desert because the air is so dry, and yet sudden dips in air pressure spawn brutal storms.

Because of how disruptive all this is, researchers still don't know exactly how things work in the Central Arctic Ocean surrounding the North Pole. Exactly how do microbes, plankton, fish and other forms of marine life survive the winter? How differently have they evolved?

Enter Tara, a floating polar research station that looks like a flying saucer perched atop a buoy.

Setting sail today (July 19), the al...