During the “Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC)” in 2019/2020 a Distributed Network (DN) of autonomous stations (buoys) was installed on the sea ice and drifted across the Arctic Ocean. This network consisted of >200 individual devices ranging from simple position buoys to complex and interdisciplinary multi-sensor platforms. Most (complex) measurements were performed on sea ice floes (sites or nodes) by co-located instruments. These sites were called medium (M) and large (L) sites. In addition, autonomous instruments were operated in the Central Observatory (CO), which consisted of the research ice breaker Polarstern and the adjacent ice camp. Initially, 4 L and 9 M sites were installed around the CO in a distance of up to 40 km. However, their distances and relative positions changed over time due to the drift of the ice pack over time. Over the course of the MOSAiC expedition, 3 different COs were established because of re-locations of RV Polarstern: CO1 started with the first drift of Polarstern on 04 October 2019; CO2 started with the second drift on 19 June 2020; and CO3 started with the third drift on 21 August 2020.