News

100 excellent international experts trained for global marine science

The Nippon Foundation-POGO Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography celebrates ten highly successful years at the Alfred Wegener Institute

[24. April 2024]  A decade of excellence: Over the past ten years 100 scholars from 47 countries to become experts in marine science were trained at the Alfred Wegener Institute. This highly effective programme funded by the Nippon Foundation and the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) and the Alfred Wegener Institute is successfully completed. This is a perfect occasion to celebrate all candidates and their teachers, and the graduation of the ten current participants from ten different countries in Berlin at the Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science.

Drifting with the clouds

Experts investigate the role of clouds in the Arctic

[12. April 2024]  The role of clouds and warm air masses from the open ocean for the rapid warming of the Arctic is at the heart of a recent Alfred Wegener Institute project on Svalbard. The researchers are applying a new perspective and tracking how individual air masses cool above the sea ice, form clouds, and lose moisture through precipitation. To do so, they’re using specially designed weather balloons capable of continually measuring the temperature and humidity within a given air mass.

No two worms are alike

New study confirms that even the simplest marine organisms tend to be individualistic

[11. April 2024]  Sport junkie or couch potato? Always on time or often late? The animal kingdom, too, is home to a range of personalities, each with its own lifestyle. AWI-researchers report on a surprising discovery: even simple marine polychaete worms shape their day-to-day lives on the basis of highly individual rhythms. This diversity is of interest not just for the future of species and populations in a changing environment, but also for medicine.

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

Ocean sediment cores reveal climate-related fluctuations in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in past epochs

[27. March 2024]  Der Antarktische Zirkumpolarstrom spielt eine wichtige Rolle für die globale Umwälzzirkulation, den Wärme- und CO2-Austausch zwischen Ozean und Atmosphäre und die Stabilität der antarktischen Eismassen. Ein internationales Forschungsteam unter Leitung des Alfred-Wegener-Instituts und dem Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory hat nun an Klimaarchiven in Sedimenten aus dem Südpazifik die Fließgeschwindigkeit in den letzten 5,3 Millionen Jahren rekonstruiert.

Enormous Ice Loss from Greenland Glacier

Melt rates of 130 metres per year measured under the 79° N Glacier

[22. March 2024]  Ground-based measuring devices and aircraft radar operated in the far northeast of Greenland show how much ice the 79° N Glacier is losing. According to measurements conducted by the Alfred Wegener Institute, the thickness of the glacier has decreased by more than 160 metres since 1998. Warm ocean water flowing under the glacier tongue is melting the ice from below. High air temperatures cause lakes to form on the surface, whose water flows through huge channels in the ice into the ocean. One channel reached a height of 500 metres, while the ice above was only 190 metres thick, as a research team has now reported in the scientific journal The Cryosphere.

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