Archive of News and Press Releases
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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On the outer shelf
In the beginning of the week we left the coast of Greenland. Leaving icebergs and sea ice behind us, we steamed in a south-easterly direction along the axis of Norske Trough toward the mid-shelf, where both a sill can be found in the trough and the northern slope toward the shallow Belgica Bank is particularly steep. In this location we expected to find the inflow of the Atlantic Water to be particularly focussed as a boundary current.
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Between Ile-de-France and Norske Oer
This week started with a disappointment. As a result of very dense sea ice coverage we were unable to recover 3 moorings deployed near the northern edge of the embayment of the 79°N Glacier, in order to observe the circulation at the transition from Norske Trough in the south to Westwind Trough in the north.
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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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At the 79°N Glacier
We are looking back on a very active and exciting week. In the beginning our work was still concentrated on the area of the shelf break of Northeast Greenland at the mouth of Westwind Trough, with the latter representing a depression leading toward the inner shelf. In the trough relatively warm Atlantic Water can be found near the sea floor.
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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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The forerunners of Greenland
In the evening of 12 September the research icebreaker R/V Polarstern left the port of Tromsø (Norway). On board there are scientists from seven nations who cover the range from physical oceanography, geochemistry, glaciology, geodesy, geology, geophysics, atmospheric physics and chemistry as well as marine biology and biogeochemistry. The aim of the “Greenland ice sheet/ocean interaction” (GRISO) expedition is to unravel the complex physical interactions between the ocean and the ice sheet of Northeast Greenland, as well as their implications for the…
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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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