Archive of News and Press Releases
Larsen C Ice Shelf Remains a Mystery
A few days ago, the captain and the head of the current Polarstern expedition jointly decided to abandon their efforts to reach the Larsen C Ice Shelf. Since dense sea ice and ice ridges blocked the planned route, the ship has now set course for alternative research sites further to the north.
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AWI hosts the King and Queen of the Netherlands
On the evening of 6 March 2019, His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands will visit the Alfred Wegener Institute as part of their tour of the State of Bremen. Dutch and German researchers will report to the royal couple on their collaborations regarding climate change, biodiversity and nature conservation, sign a joint declaration, and subsequently gather for a festive dinner.
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On the way
Right now, we are southeast off James Ross Island in the western Weddell Sea breaking our way to the iceberg A68 and the Larsen C ice shelf. The distance to the northern tip of A68 measures ca. 75 nautical miles (nm), slightly over 135 km. To our working area, the area where A 68 broke of the Larsen C ice shelf, the distance is ca. 180 nm (330 km)…
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A bumpy start
We are still in Punta Arenas at the pier in Cabo Negro to take on fuel. Later, we need to take on kerosene for the helicopters and finish last cargo operations. If everything works according to plan, we should hopefully be on our way to Antarctica on Monday morning. However, all in good order …
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Munitions at the bottom of the Baltic Sea
The bottom of the Baltic Sea is home to large quantities of sunken munitions, a legacy of the Second World War – and often very close to shore. Should we simply leave them where they are and accept the risk of their slowly releasing toxic substances, or should we instead remove them, and run the risk of their falling apart – or even exploding? Administrators and politicians face these questions when e.g. there are plans for building a new wind park, or laying an underwater cable. In the course of the international project DAIMON, researchers prepared…
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Anja Karliczek visits the Alfred Wegener Institute
At the invitation of Senator of Science Eva Quante-Brandt, and as part of her tour of the Federal States, today (Thursday, 7 February 2019) Federal Minister of Education and Research Anja Karliczek visited the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven.
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Cracks herald the calving of a large iceberg from Petermann Glacier
Cracks in the floating ice tongue of Petermann Glacier in the far northwest reaches of Greenland indicate the pending loss of another large iceberg. As glaciologists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) report in a new study, the glacier’s flow rate has increased by an average of 10 percent since the calving event in 2012, during which time new cracks have also formed – a quite natural process. However, the experts’ model simulations also show that, if these ice masses truly break off, Petermann…
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Good-bye Antarctica
The scientific party and crew are facing their final big challenge: a four day long dense sequence of CTDs, Ultra Clean CTDs (Fig. 1) as well as mooring recoveries and deployments.
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Helmholtz International Fellow Award 2018 to Peter Bauer
Dr Peter Bauer, Deputy Director of the Research Department of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in the UK, has been awarded the Helmholtz International Fellow Award 2018.
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Scientific expedition heads to newly exposed Antarctic ecosystem
An international team of scientists heads to Antarctica this week to investigate a mysterious marine ecosystem that’s been hidden beneath an Antarctic ice shelf for up to 120,000 years.
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