Archive of News and Press Releases
Under Saharan Dust
After 13 days at sea Polarstern reached Las Palmas on the Canary Islands on the 10th November. The team of three geophysicists left the ship and six new people came on board: two technicians to test the satellite antennae system, Sören Krägefski to calibrate the EK60 Ecosounder, two people to support the TROPOS team (Leipzig Institute for Tropospheric Research) and Karin Lochte as the new cruise leader. We also had a visit of the Director and colleagues from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography IEO (Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia) and POGO, who were…
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Loss of Diversity Near Melting Coastal Glaciers
Melting glaciers are causing a loss of species diversity among benthos in the coastal waters off the Antarctic Peninsula, impacting an entire seafloor ecosystem. This has been verified in the course of repeated research dives, the results of which were recently published by experts from Argentina, Germany and Great Britain and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in a study in the journal Science Advances. The scientists believe increased levels of suspended sediment in the water to be the cause of the…
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Tribute to 3D-Printing
Our new map of the Antarctic continent and the seafloor of the Southern Ocean, which we have created with the TU Dresden’s Institute for Cartography, will be shown in the Hall of Fame of Cartography.
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Sea Ice Plays a Pivotal Role in the Arctic Methane Cycle
The ice-covered Arctic Ocean is a more important factor concerning the concentration of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere than previously assumed. Experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) report on the newly discovered interactions between the atmosphere, sea ice and the ocean in a recent online study in the journal Nature’s Scientific Reports.
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An unexpected encounter and the issue with the motion sensor
“Heaven smiles when angles travel” – tells an old German saying. If this is true, we must have many angles on board looking at the extremely good weather conditions we have had till now. It didn’t even breeze in the Biscay and thus, we were able to conduct all planned station work.
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AWI researcher Nils Hutter will be honoured for his outstanding master’s thesis
AWI modeller Nils Hutter wrote one of the year's best Master's theses in the University of Bremen's Environmental Physics degree programme. In recognition of his academic performance, he will be awarded the 2015 OHB Prize by the University's Faculty 1 on 27 November 2015.
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The “floating summer school” begins
On Tuesday October 29, 2015 was cast off at 13:00 h on the dot. Two tugboats maneuvered Polarstern into the lock. Once in the Weser she starts steaming and leaves Bremerhaven southbound for the Antarctic season 2015/16. 43 crew members as well as 52 scientists and students are on board.
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The Polarstern-Expedition PS95
The expedition PS 95 is split in two legs: PS95.1 transit cruise from Bremerhaven to Las Palmas and PS 95.2 from Las Palmas to Cape Town. Both legs are dedicated to the training of students.
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Polarstern Embarks for Cape Town on Training Cruise
On 29 October 2015 the research icebreaker Polarstern will leave its homeport in Bremerhaven for Cape Town, South Africa, where it is expected to arrive on 1 December. She’ll take with her 32 students hailing from 19 countries, who will be introduced to the latest methods and instruments used in oceanography. Nine instructors from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), the FU Berlin and Ireland’s Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology will teach the participants in the “floating summer school”.
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Plastic Litter taints the sea surface, even in the Arctic
In a new study, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), show for the first time that marine litter can even be found at the sea surface of Arctic waters. Though it remains unclear how the litter made it so far north, it is likely to pose new problems for local marine life, the authors report on the online portal of the scientific journal Polar Biology. Plastic has already been reported from stomachs of resident seabirds and Greenland sharks.
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