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The severe droughts in the USA and Australia are the first sign that the tropics, and their warm temperatures, are apparently expanding in the wake of climate change. But until now, scientists have been unable to conclusively explain the reasons for this, because they were mostly focusing on atmospheric processes. Now, experts at the AWI have solved the puzzle: the alarming expansion of the tropics is not caused by processes in the atmosphere, but quite simply by warming subtropical ocean. 

Many experts are concerned by the increasing pollution of the environment with tiny plastic particles. But we still don’t know enough about the scope of the problem: though there are various methods for detecting microplastic in water and in other samples, it’s often difficult to compare the results. An international team led by Dr Sebastian Primpke and Dr Michaela Meyns from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) has now presented possible solutions in two new studies released in the journal “Applied…

We are delighted to announce that the communication team of the MOSAiC expedition yesterday received the BdKom Award 2020 in the category "Team of the Year". This prize is awarded annually by the German Federal Association of Communicators, in four categories. The "Team of the Year" award recognizes the joint and professional communication performance of a department and the concept of its communication project.

This summer the sea-ice cover on the Arctic Ocean shrank to the second-smallest extent since the beginning of satellite observation in 1979. By mid-September it covered only 3.8 million square kilometres, 0.5 million km² above the all-time low in 2012.  
According to data from the University of Bremen, back then the extent was only 3.27 million square kilometres. There are a number of causes for the massive loss of ice this summer: firstly, during the previous winter, primarily thin sea ice was formed in Russia’s marginal seas, and soon melted again…

Ice-sheet models are an essential tool in making predictions regarding the future of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets. Nevertheless, these models still have a number of weaknesses. In an international model comparison, 14 research groups fed their ice-sheet models the same atmospheric and ocean data, and calculated what additional amounts of sea-level rise Greenland and the Antarctic would contribute by the year 2100. For Greenland, the results are consistent: if greenhouse-gas emissions levels remain just as high, the island will eventually lose…

Yesterday, the Helmholtz project "Digital Earth" for integrated geo-research was awarded the special prize for "Digital Science" of the "Digital Leader Awards" in the "Society" category. The companies NTT and IDG Business Media, together with other business partners, award these prizes across all sectors to projects and teams that drive the digital transformation. The finalists in 2020 included companies such as Infineon, BMW and the Ergo Group, but also public authorities such as the Federal Employment Agency. However, the Helmholtz project is the first…

The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and its three Russian partners received an award in the category of top-level research for the QUARCCS project within the framework of the competition "Building Bridges for German-Russian Cooperation in Higher Education and Science", which was jointly announced by the Russian and German Foreign Ministries.

The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on the planet. As a result, permafrost that is thousands of years old is now being lost to erosion. As measurements gathered on the Lena River by AWI experts show, the scale of erosion is alarming: every year, roughly 15 metres of the riverbanks crumble away. In addition, the carbon stored in the permafrost could worsen the greenhouse effect. 

Island chains like Hawaii are situated above so-called hotspots, where hot magma flows upward continuously over long time periods. It has been much debated whether there are currently active hotspots in the South Atlantic. Geoscientists from AWI and MARUM have presented important evidence: It is now clear that one of these hotspots is located in the middle of the South Atlantic, near the island of Tristan da Cunha.

Preparation courses, team building and media training: the new overwinterer team for Neumayer Station III has been determined. At the moment, the "Üwis" are fully prepared for their overwintering before they go to Antarctica at the end of the year.