The expedition ARKTIS 1988 was initiated and directed by the Collaborative Research Centre 318 of the German Research Foundation entitled "Climatically relevant proceses in the system ocean-atmosphere-ice" and established at the University of Hamburg. The field experiment took place in the Fram Strait in the area straddling the ice margin west of Spitsbergen during the period from 4 to 26 May 1988.

The experimental concept for the investigation of boundary layer modification and certain cloud structures in cases of off-ice and on-ice air flows was to maneuver one ship, the research icebreaker POLARSTERN, about 100 km into the ice and to operate with a second ship, the research vessel VALDIVIA, in the open water near the ice edge. Several aircraft operating from the airport at Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen were intended to measure the mean structures, variances and covariances at different distances from the ice edge.

ARKTIS 1988 was followed by the two experiments ARKTIS 1991 and ARKTIS 1993.