Archive of News and Press Releases
Far fewer lakes below the East Antarctic Ice Sheet than previously believed
In the course of an extensive Antarctic expedition, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research recently investigated several lakes beneath Recovery Glacier that had been previously detected by satellite remote sensing. The experts found very few substantial bodies of water, which is a surprising result: up to that point, the scientific community had assumed that overflowing lakes below the East Antarctic Ice Sheet were the reason that ice masses began sliding and forming ice streams to begin with. This…
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Close links between Europe and the Arctic
Warm, moist air masses from the lower latitudes are the main energy source for the Arctic atmosphere in winter; they have a significant influence on soil temperatures and can produce sea-ice melting. Because climate and weather models still have considerable difficulties when it comes to accurately depicting key processes involved in the transformation of these air masses, AWI researchers recently summarised the current state of knowledge and identified remaining gaps; their study has just been released in the journal Nature Geoscience.
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"We need to make fundamental changes"
The EU wants to ban single-use, disposable products such as drinking straws and ear swabs, the goal being to reduce the amount of plastic litter in our oceans. We discussed this initiative with two experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) – Dr Melanie Bergmann and Dr Lars Gutow.
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Negotiations regarding an Antarctic Marine Protected Area
UPDATE from 6 November 2018:
At this year’s annual meeting of the international Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), negotiations continued regarding a proposed Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute were instrumental in preparing the application for protected status, which was submitted in 2016. Unfortunately, this year’s negotiations were unsuccessful.
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Politicians put the focus on Arctic research
On 25 and 26 October, the spotlight in Berlin will be on Arctic research. On the first day, the focus will be on the Arctic Science Forum, where experts from 20 nations, representatives of indigenous peoples, and NGOs will meet to discuss international collaboration in the context of Arctic research. On the second day, the 2nd Arctic Science Ministerial will convene, followed by public events that will round out the conference.
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Polarstern returns from geo-expedition in the Arctic
This morning, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) research icebreaker Polarstern returned to her homeport in Bremerhaven. Over the previous six weeks, nearly 100 contributing researchers and crewmembers had engaged in geoscientific fieldwork, sea-ice experiments and meteorological research in the Central Arctic. In addition, students from the German-Canadian graduate training programme ArcTrain were on board.
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About packing, cleaning, writing – and a thank you very much at the end
Our reseach program has already been finished on Thursday last week at 10:00, and we have started our journey back to Bremehaven. In this final week of the expedition, other activities than research are dominating our daily life. These are mainly packing boxes, instruments etc., cleaning labs, writing reports etc.
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About old stones, Arctic weather, farewell to the Arctic and Heinz Rühmann
Monday (01 Oct 18).The final research week starts. For today as well as tomorrow a full coring program for the geologists has been scheduled. At two potential locations selected for drilling within the IODP program multicorer, giant box corer, gravity corer and kastenlot corer are used successfully to sample the near-surface sediments.
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Expedition with RV Maria S. Merain to the AWI Hausgarten
A team of 22 scientific expedition participants around deep-sea biologist Dr Thomas Soltwedel from the Alfred Wegener Institute is currently conducting research on board RV Maria S. Merian in the so-called AWI HAUSGARTEN.
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A mosaic of silence, storm, sea ice and kastenlot
Monday (24 Sep). A new week begins – quite similar to the last one. For the next three to four days we have to listen to the “music of the geophysicists”, every 15 seconds the monotonous “wum” will enjoy us.
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