News

Arctic Circle Prize

Antje Boetius and Markus Rex accept Arctic Circle Prize

Alfred Wegener Institute and MOSAiC expedition receive award

[17. October 2022]  The Alfred Wegener Institute and the MOSAiC research expedition were awarded the Arctic Circle Prize on Saturday, 15 October 2022 in Reykjavik. With the prize, the international organisation Arctic Circle recognises extraordinary contributions to securing a sustainable and prosperous future in the Arctic. This is the third time the prize has been awarded since 2016, previous winners being Ban Ki-moon (then Secretary General of the United Nations) and John Kerry (former US Secretary of State and US Chair of the Arctic Council).

Arctic Ocean: Greater Future acidification in summer

A new study predicts that climate change could shift and intensify the seasonal acidification of the Arctic Ocean, with consequences for its ecosystem

[05. October 2022]  Over the past 200 years, our planet’s oceans have absorbed more than a quarter of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. As a result, their acidity has increased by nearly 30 percent their acidity has increased by nearly 30 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In this regard, the water’s pH value isn’t constant; it varies both seasonally and regionally. The lowest values naturally occur in winter. But that could soon change, since they could be shifted to the summer by climate change, as an international team including experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute recently demonstrated. If this comes to pass, it could have far-reaching consequences for life in the ocean, as they report in the journal Nature.

New Method Makes It Possible to Measure Arctic Sea-ice Thickness, Even in Summer

An international team of researchers including experts from the AWI has now developed a method that uses satellite data to estimate the Arctic ice thickness and volume year-round

[14. September 2022]  Over the past several decades, the Arctic has warmed much faster than the rest of the world. With consequences for its sea ice. An international team of researchers including experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute has now developed a method that, for the first time, makes it possible to identify changes in the Arctic sea-ice thickness for the years 2011 to 2021 – even during the summer months. The resultant data is especially valuable for shipping in the Arctic and will substantially improve the quality of weather and ice forecasts alike. The results have just been released in the journal Nature.           

Antarctica

Emperor Penguins Live up to 600 Kilometres Farther North than Previously Assumed

Tagging project proves that juvenile penguins often live far beyond the current and planned protected areas alike

[31. August 2022]  Before they reach the age of one, young emperor penguins from Atka Bay, near the German Neumayer Station III in the Antarctic, swim far north, beyond the 50th parallel south. Consequently, the current and planned Marine Protected Areas fail to offer them sufficient protection, as researchers including experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute contend in a study just released in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Floating Summer School

As part of the UN Ocean Decade, an international Polarstern expedition departs from Bremerhaven

[29. August 2022]  On 30 August, 14 young investigators from around the globe will depart from Bremerhaven, bound for Cape Town. During the cruise, known as the North South Atlantic Training Transect, they’ll gain valuable insights into the marine sciences and conduct brief projects on the interactions between the ocean, atmosphere and climate. They’ll take with them three mini-boats constructed by schoolchildren from Germany, Ireland and Spain, containing instruments to measure the air and water temperature.

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