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IPCC Special Report
The pressure to take action is enormous
Statements on the IPCC’s new Special Report “The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate” from Hans-Otto Pörtner and AWI Director Antje Boetius
[25. September 2019]
Today, in Monaco, the IPCC will present its new Special Report on the ocean and the Earth’s frozen regions. The report summarises observations of and projections on climate-based changes to ecosystems in the ocean, coastal, polar and alpine regions, describes the likely impacts of these changes for society, and presents a range of options for adaptation. Over the past three years, 104 researchers from 36 countries have contributed to the report. In the statements below, Prof Hans-Otto Pörtner, Co-Chair of the IPCC’s Working Group II, and AWI Director Prof Antje Boetius share their thoughts on its significance.
Expedition MOSAiC
This Evening Sees the Start of MOSAiC – the Greatest Arctic Research Expedition of All Time
Frozen in the Arctic sea ice, scientists from 17 nations will investigate the epicentre of climate change on board the research icebreaker Polarstern for an entire year.
[20. September 2019]
After a decade of preparations, it’s finally time: this evening at 8:30 p.m. the German icebreaker Polarstern will depart from the Norwegian port of Tromsø. On board researchers will investigate a region that is virtually inaccessible in winter, and which is crucial for the global climate.
Arctic Sea Ice
Low sea-ice cover in the Arctic
Second-lowest September minimum since observations
[13. September 2019]
The sea-ice extent in the Arctic is nearing its annual minimum at the end of the melt season in September. Only circa 3.9 million square kilometres of the Arctic Ocean are covered by sea ice any more, according to researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute and the University of Bremen. This is only the second time that the annual minimum has dropped below four million square kilometres since satellite measurements began in 1979.
Climate Modelling
New Climate Model for the IPCC
AWI climate model part of the basis for the IPCC Assessment Report for the first time
[04. September 2019]
Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute now, for the first time, feed the results from their global models directly into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change database. The data is particularly interesting because the underlying model, developed at the AWI, depicts the sea ice and the oceans with far greater definition than conventional methods. The results are used by climate scientists and stakeholders around the globe to determine the effects of climate change on humans and the environment.
AWI-Hausgarten
Anniversary in the far north
20 years of long-term ecological research in the deep Arctic Ocean
[29. August 2019]
20 years ago, scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) laid the “foundation stone” for a unique long-term observatory in the partly ice-covered Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard, which they call their HAUSGARTEN. The deep-sea observatory is the first, and still the only one of its kind for year-round physical, chemical and biological observations in a polar region. Here researchers investigate how a polar marine ecosystem alters in a period of global change.
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