Archive of News and Press Releases
Sea water below, wind above and ice in between: “Polarstern” is thriving in the Southern Ocean waters between Bouvet Island and the Neumayer III station.
Just in time when the first weekly letter started its long distance, homeward bound journey - a “space odyssey” via satellite - the first tiny ice fragments appeared in the sea. One day later, and ice floes, knocked against the ship’s hull and woke up some of the “Antarctic greenhorns” sleeping in their berths (at the end of our cruise everyone on board will be missing this sound!).
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AWI's Friends' Association honours permafrost researcher for extraordinary achievements
Permafrost researcher Dr Jens Strauss, AWI Potsdam, was awarded "Young Scientist 2015". With this award the chairmen of the Friends' Association acknowledge the researcher's outstanding achievements in his dissertation.
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This Agreement will initiate a Technology Shift
This agreement will initiate a technology change, which includes the increasing farewell to fossil fuels and the transition to sustainable management. With these words, AWI researcher Hans-Otto Pörtner commented on the conclusion of the first global climate protection agreement in Paris.
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At the beginning of an expedition
Northern Europeans are not used to seeing ubiquitous advent decoration at +25°C in the shade. Off we go – leaving the Table Mountain and heading south. Frozen water fits our idea of Christmas much better than a boiling hot sun.
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Why are there no signs of Inland Antarctica warming up?
The mean temperature of the Earth's surface has risen noticeably over the past decades. This warming is to a large extent due to the anthropogenic emissions of CO2 that amplify the natural greenhouse effect. Observations show, however, that there has been hardly or almost no increase in the surface temperature of inland Antarctica over the same period.
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Global carbon emissions projected to decline in 2015
This year emissions could decline by 0.6 per cent, according to researchers of the Global Carbon Project. The results appeared in the online journal Earth System Science Data.
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PS96 - Capa Town to Punta Arenas
The cruise leg PS96 FROSN, Filchner Ronne Outflow System Now (ANT XXXI/2) will start on December 6, 2015 in Cape Town and will end on February 14, 2016 in Punta Arenas.
In total, 45 scientists work on board in 8 different groups in various physical and biological disciplines and will address questions in meteorology, oceanography and bathymetry as well as benthic, ecological and fish biological problems. In addition, the ship has to provide time consuming logistical support of different kind during the expedition.
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Turning the spotlight on the Arctic
The upcoming Saturday, 5th December 2015, the European Polar Board, the scientific project ICE-ARC and the consortium EU-PolarNet, which is managed by the Alfred Wegener Institute, host an official side event during this year’s UN climate conference. The focus of the event lies on how climate change affects the Arctic and which global consequences the changes in the High North draw with them.
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In the Benguela Upwelling Region
On the way to Cape Town we continued with our regular underway measurements, only interrupted by two full stations with CTD and plankton nets on Monday (ca. 10°S) and Thursday (20°15’S). The last CTD on Thursday was celebrated and we were a bit sad that this was the last station.
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RV Polarstern arrives in Cape Town
The German research vessel Polarstern will arrive tomorrow in Cape Town after a five week voyage. During this training cruise from Bremerhaven to South Africa 32 international young scientists were trained in how to observe and measure the vital signs of the Atlantic Ocean.
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