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A strong case for limiting climate change
In November 2017, the German research network on ocean acidification BIOACID (Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification) reaches its conclusion after eight years of extensive interdisciplinary scientific activity. Experiments and analyses carried out by more than 250 scientists from 20 German institutions clearly indicate that ocean acidification and warming, along with other environmental stressors, impair life in the ocean and compromise important ecosystem services it provides to humankind. A brochure summarises major outcomes of the project for…
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Exploring Greenland’s 79 North Glacier
Following a five-month journey, the research vessel Polarstern returned to its homeport in Bremerhaven on the evening of Friday, 13 October. During the most recent expedition, the vessel reached the 79 North Glacier in Northeast Greenland, where the researchers on board investigated how the ocean temperature, which has been rising over the past twenty years, has affected the glacier’s mass.
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![[Translate to English:] Das NETCARE-Team des deutschen Forschungsflugzeuges Polar 5](/fileadmin/_processed_/7/4/csm_20150416_NETCARE_2015_053_SHendricks_1eff57d1e6.jpg "[Translate to English:] Das NETCARE-Team des deutschen Forschungsflugzeuges Polar 5")
Ten years of exploration with the AWI’s research aircraft Polar 5
The 1st of October 2017 marks the ten-year anniversary since the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) research aircraft Polar 5 began service. In that time, the Basler BT-67 has flown more than 1.3 million kilometres to fulfil essential scientific and logistical duties. In the course of 48 measuring campaigns, predominantly for atmospheric research and geophysics purposes, the airplane has landed on the Arctic sea ice near the North Pole, and at the South Pole.
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AWI Potsdam: Celebrating 25 years
The founding of the AWI Potsdam 25 years ago represented the successful reunification of German polar research. In honour of this occasion, today representatives of the scientific community and politics will look back on a quarter century of polar research at the Alfred Wegner Institute’s Potsdam facilities – including Brandenburg’s Minister for Science, Research and Culture, Dr Martina Münch, and Karl-Eugen Huthmacher from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. They will also inaugurate a new annex on the Telegrafenberg.
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From River Weser to the North Sea
Around the globe, the pollution of rivers, lakes and seas with plastic litter is on the rise. A new project jointly coordinated by the University of Bayreuth and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) is the first to approach the problem from a holistic perspective. In the model region Weser – Wadden Sea National Park the participating researchers will use e.g. empirical and model-assisted analyses to discover how minute plastic particles (microplastics) make their way from land to sea, which input and…
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Arctic sea ice once again shows considerable melting
This September, the extent of Arctic sea ice shrank to roughly 4.7 million square kilometres, as was determined by researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute, the University of Bremen and Universität Hamburg. Though slightly larger than last year, the minimum sea ice extent 2017 is average for the past ten years and far below the numbers from 1979 to 2006. The Northeast Passage was traversable for ships without the need for icebreakers.
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In the right place at the right time
Over the next five years, nine research centres of the Helmholtz Association will collaborate to create a flexible, mobile measuring system for Earth observation: MOSES – Modular Observation Solutions for Earth Systems. Researchers will use this system to investigate how short-term dynamic events such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall are linked to the long-term development of Earth and environmental systems. MOSES is being coordinated at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig.
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AWI’s underwater robot Tramper successfully recovered
On 27 August 2017, deep-sea researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) recovered the underwater robot Tramper, which had been taking measurements at a depth of 2435 metres for nearly 60 weeks – the first long-term mission involving a crawler under the Arctic sea ice. For the first 24 weeks, the robot took biogeochemical readings at various sites, just as it was intended to. Unfortunately, because of a broken tread, Tramper got stuck in the same place in January, though it continued to record the…
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Polar 6 is the first German research aircraft to traverse the North Pole
At 2:10 pm UTC on 22 August 2017, the Polar 6 became the first German research aircraft to fly over the North Pole. The aircraft “departed from (10:11 am UTC) and returned to (5:00 pm UTC) Station North (81.5°N, 16W)”, as Dr Thomas Krumpen reported in an email sent from Greenland.
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New findings on the past and future of sea ice cover in the Arctic
Temperatures in the Arctic are currently climbing two to three times faster than the global average. The result – and, thanks to feedback effects, also the cause – is dwindling sea ice. In a study published in the actual volume of Nature Communications, geo- and climate researchers at the Alfred-Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI) show that, in the course of our planet’s history, summertime sea ice was to be found in the central Arctic in periods characterised by higher global temperatures – but less CO2 – than today.
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