Archive of News and Press Releases
The Leibniz Ring goes to Antje Boetius
"Climate catastrophe, environmental pollution, and 'saving the oceans' are all interrelated issues. They concern, or should concern, everyone on this planet." - with these words, the selection committee explained its choice of recipient for the 2019 LeibnizRingHannover Award: AWI Director Prof Antje Boetius.
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South Georgia - Gate to Antarctica
After the departure from Punta Arenas and an 8-hourly passage through the Magellan Strait RV Polarstern started a 4-day transit bound for South Georgia. This time without station work was used by our 51 scientists from Germany, USA, Costa Rica, Austria, UK, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Chile, Taiwan, France, India, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland to further set up laboratories and to intensely exchange talks on the various research aims of this expedition.
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Antje Boetius speaks in the Klimahaus
In front of about 120 people, Antje Boetius talked about the influence of global warming on the polar regions in "Klimahaus Bremerhaven 8° Ost". She reported on expeditions and the direct consequences of accelerated climate change.
Groundbreaking Ceremony for the AWI Technical Centre
On Thursday, 18 April 2019 an official groundbreaking ceremony was held for a new Technical Centre for the development of innovative maritime technologies in Klußmannstraße, Bremerhaven. Representatives of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Federal State of Bremen, and the City of Bremerhaven celebrated this milestone together with the Directorate and staff of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research.
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Three research vessels – one mission
Based on global forecasts, storm events accompanied by heavy rainfall and flooding will occur 10 to 20 percent more frequently by the end of this century. Moreover, they and extreme low-water phases will produce a tremendous amount of damage, not to mention both socio-economic and ecological impacts. In order to better understand those impacts, on 16 and 17 April 2019 three research ships in the Helmholtz programme MOSES will undertake a joint research cruise from the Elbe estuary to Helgoland.
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Departure to our research area in the Scotia Sea
On Monday, 15th of April 2019, at 13:48 local time RV POLARSTERN left her mooring at position C in front of the harbour of Punta Arenas for a 3-day transit toward her first research area in the waters of the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia.
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What Earth's gravity reveals about climate change
On March 17, 2002, the German-US satellite duo GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) were launched to map the global gravitational field with unprecedented precision. After all, the mission lasted a good 15 years - more than three times as long as expected. When the two satellites burnt up in the Earth's atmosphere at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, respectively, they had recorded the Earth's gravitational field and its changes over time in more than 160 months.
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ROV in Antarctic waters
Where the Earth’s plates meet, there is evidence of their motion. An expedition of the Research Vessel Polarstern will explore this activity in the Southern Ocean in detail. The major focus of the expedition led by scientists from MARUM is to examine hot vents and cold seeps. This will be the first deployment of the remotely operated vehicle MARUM-QUEST in the Antarctic region. The start of the expedition is scheduled for 13 April 2019.
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Retrieving Climate History from the Ice
In the context of a major European Union project, experts from 14 institutions in ten European countries have spent three years combing the Antarctic ice, looking for the ideal site to investigate the climate history of the past 1.5 million years. Today, the consortium Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice (BE-OI), led by Olaf Eisen from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, presented its findings at the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna.
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End of work and journey home
During the past week, we finished our work in the Powell Basin, collected another glider and started our homeward journey to Punta Arenas. By now, we have reached the Strait of Magellan. Tomorrow morning, we will pick up the pilot for the passage through the Magellan Strait and into Punta Arenas where we should arrive in the afternoon.
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