Archive of News and Press Releases

AWI Director Antje Boetius
Short news

Antje Boetius speaks at the Marine Regions Forum

From 30th September until 2nd October, the Marine Regions Forum takes place in Berlin. AWI Director Antje Boetius will open the conference with a podium discussion, among others with Klaus Töpfer, on "Achieving healthy oceans - Challenges and opportunities".
Icebergs in the bay of Rothera. Photo: Robert Ricken, Alfred-Wegener-Institut

Fotos von der Polar 6-Kampagne an der Antarktischen Halbinsel im November 2013; Meereisdickenmessungen ueber der Bellinghausensee;  Start und Landungen an der britischen Forschungsstation Rothera;
Flüge für das Projekt AMASIM (Airborne Measurements for Antarctic Sea Ice Monitoring), ein Teil des Profils war entlang einer Überflugbahn des CryoSat-2 Satelliten angelegt. Ziel der Vergleichsflüge ist es, Algorithmen zur verbesserten Auswertung der CryoSat-2 Daten aus den höher auflösenden flugzeuggestützten Messungen zu erarbeiten.

English:
photos from the Polar 6 flight campaign in November 2013; location: Antarctic Peninsula, main base: research station Rothera (UK); campaigns: sea ice thickness measurements across the Bellinghausen sea (Project: AMASIM - Airborne Measurements for Antarctic Sea Ice Monitoring; validation for CryoSat2; flight across the Larsen shelf ice.
Press releases

The pressure to take action is enormous

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…
Short news

Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate approved

The IPCC plenary in Monaco concludes today with the approval of the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SCROCC). More information.
Online news

Antje Boetius at United Nations

AWI director Antje Boetius currently participates as an ocean expert in the Action Platform for Sustainable Ocean Business at the United Nations in New York.
The German research vessel Polarstern during an expedition into the central Arctic Ocean.
Press releases

This Evening Sees the Start of MOSAiC – the Greatest Arctic Research Expedition of All Time

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. Escorted by the Russian icebreaker Akademik Fedorov, she will set sail for the Central Arctic. On board researchers will investigate a region that is virtually inaccessible in winter, and which is crucial for the global climate. They will gather urgently needed data on the interactions between the atmosphere, ocean and sea ice, as well as on the ecosystem. Thanks to the collaboration between…
Sediments from Lake Czechowskie in the Tuchola Forest, Poland, allow for the high-resolution reconstruction of past forest fires in a region dominated by pine monocultures sensitive to the ongoing environmental change.
Online news

Researchers see need for action on forest fire risk

How do humans affect forest fires? And what can we learn from forest fires in the past for the future of forestry? An international team of researchers led by Elisabeth Dietze, formerly at the German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ in Potsdam and now at the Alfred Wegener Institute - Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, now provides new answers to these questions. The research team has shown for a region in north-eastern Poland that forest fires increasingly occurred there after the end of the 18th century with the change to organised…
Anyone can follow the expedition live on the mobile with the MOSAiC web app.
Online news

Follow Polarstern’s drift live on your mobile device

An expedition of superlatives: MOSAiC poses a big challenge to all international scientists involved: The drift of Polarstern will be determined by nature and can only be estimated so far in advance. To allow everyone interested to join this exciting expedition live, the MOSAiC web application will launch on the 20th of September, including all features.
Diese Aufnahme stammt aus der IceCam des EM-Birds, einem Meereisdickensensor, der unter einem Hubschrauber hängend über das Meereis geflogen wird. Die Kamera ist derart in das Geräte eingebaut, dass sie immer senkrecht in die Tiefe fotografiert.

This image was taken with the IceCam, installed in the hull of the EM-Bird, the AWI sea ice thickness measuring sensor, which in pulled underneath a helicopter above the sea ice to measure its thickness. The camera points vertically downwards and takes photos of the area directly underneath the bird.
Press releases

Low sea-ice cover in the Arctic

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.
Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius,deutsche Meeresbiologin und Professorin der Universität Bremen,
seit November 2017 leitet sie das Alfred-Wegener-Institut in Bremerhaven.
Geboren: 5. März 1967 (Alter 51 Jahre), Frankfurt am Main
Ausbildung: Universität Hamburg
Feld: Meeresbiologie
Auszeichnungen: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Preis, Gustav-Steinmann-Medaille,Deutscher Umweltpreis 2018
Short news

AWI Director gives lecture

Antje Boetius gives a lecture on 13.9.19, from 18:45 on the topic "Science of Arctic Change - What the North Pole has got to do with us" at the Institut français Bremen. All interested are welcome. Organizer is the Cosmopolitan Ladies Club Bremen.
AWI Director at "Science for Future" in China
Online news

AWI Director as a lecturer in Beijing

The National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) organize the conference series "Science for Future".